Ancestors, Hear my plea, Help me not to make a fool of me…

The other day, while having a sushi date with one of my favorite followers (and favorite people in general), I realized how surprised I am that I’ve become a fan of wasabi. I told you last week how I despise spicy foods, but for some reason I love a little wasabi mixed with soy sauce on a yellowtail roll. In honor of my new found love, here is a post dedicated to wasabi.

Wasabi (Wasabia japonica) is a plant that is closely related to mustard and horseradish. Native to areas along the cold fresh water streams of Japan, the wasabi plant is a very finiky grower. Under even the most ideal conditions, farmers have a tough time getting large yields. Being native to Japan means it obviously grows best there, but high demand has brought wasabi farms to the US. In the US there are very few places that have the proper climate and landscape to support growing wasabi. Most North American production occurs in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

That dollop of wasabi you smear on your sushi is actually the wasabi root after it has been ground down to a paste. Well, that’s what you would be eating if you were eating real wasabi. With demand for wasabi so high and crop production so low, wasabi is expensive! Most restaurants (even really bougie ones) only offer real wasabi to people upon request. What you get on the corner of your plate is a mixture of horseradish, mustard and food coloring.

But now down to the part of wasabi I think is the most interesting - it’s really good for you!

Wasabi contains chemicals known as isothiocynates that are known to help fight cancers, especially breast and prostate cancer. Wasabi also has natural antibacterial properties. A bunch of studies have been conducted and report that several varieties of bacteria known to cause food poisoning cannot survive in the presence of wasabi. Companies are now even throwing around the idea of using wasabi extracts in antibacterial products like soap. I obviously totes support!

And when you think about it, it’s really not a bad idea to throw some antibacterial wasabi on raw fish you’re eating for dinner.

Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity…

Witches are found in almost every culture of the world and date back to the beginnings of civilization. What’s crazy is that many of the traditional witch images and stereotypes are actually rooted in science; my favorite example being how witches fly on broomsticks.

Early Modern period Europeans believed a witch could disguise their magic wand as a broom or even temporarily hold spirits within their broom. Most importantly, witches used their brooms to fly across the night sky, conducting evil and getting to their Sabbath. Although there were accounts of it prior, the first officially reported case of a witch flying on a broomstick was in 1453. It’s crazy, but it actually is possible to fly on a broomstick – kind of…

One part of broomstick lore that has seem to been forgotten by popular culture is that before riding the broom, a witch first had to cover it in a flying ointment. There are several recipes recovered for the ointment and all contained several herbs that were stocked full of alkaloids (carbon compounds with nitrogen in them) including atropine and scopolamine. By heating some toxic plants found in the Solanaceae family and adding some animal fats, a nice little oil could be made. This totally organic oil was actually highly hallucinogenic.

These are very odd ingredients to be using – the plants were known to be toxic by ingestion. No normal villager would actually go out to find them, let alone make anything with them. Reports of witches boiling these crazy ointments, comprised of bizarre and poisonous plants and animal fats, are where the images of a witch’s cauldron come from.

The broomstick was coated in the ointment and used as an applicator to the body. Although the ointment was toxic by ingestion, it was slowly absorbed across the skin making it safer. A witch riding a broom covered in this brew would end up getting it all over themselves. As it absorbed across the skin, the witch would begin tingling (the magic must be kicking in) and would start hallucinating – complete with out of body experiences. As they jumped and ran around on their broom, they would feel as though they were flying high. Well, they may not have been flying, but they sure were high. Imagine how creepy it is to see people today hallucinating – now imagine how scary it would have been if you saw this as a non-scientific thinking early European. You would think it was the devil’s magic.

There are even a few accounts of witches using the boom as an applicator to the “lady cavern of no return”. The thin membranes would have absorbed the oil faster and the tingling sensation would have been pleasurable. A few noises from the pleasure and, just like that, you have the stereotypical witch’s cackle!

Thanks to the scientific properties of some indigenous plants, humans were able to create an entire vision and culture of witches!

Now I am going to listen to the Wicked soundtrack on repeat for the rest of the day.

Back since the days of old Methuselah, Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-ler…

I’m not much of a plant person, but every so often I learn about a plant that definitely deserves snaps.

Methuselah is the oldest known living (non-clonal) organism in existence. It is 4,842 years old! It was germinated (popped out of its seed) in 2832 BC!

Helpful clarification: A non-clonal organism means that it was created sexually and not just the product of asexual reproduction where all offspring are genetically identical to the parent (i.e. bacteria).

Methuselah is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) that is named after the biblical figure, Methuselah that was said to have lived for 969 years. For being so old, Methuselah is still happy as can be – growing and thriving and still producing seeds. If you want to see Methuselah – good luck! It is happily growing in the “Forest of the Ancients” in California’s White Mountains, but the exact location of the tree is being kept a well guarded secret to prevent stupid people from messing with it.

Gurl! Stop Touching Me!

This is the Mimosa pudica. A plant that grows all over the place in South America. We used to grow one in the lab I worked in at JMU.

As you can see, this is a really badass plant. The minute you touch it, it will curl up and play dead. It will bounce back and look normal again once you leave it alone for a few minutes. Acting like this is possible because of ion channels, but I'm not going to get into that - it's kind of boring.

I am going to address my typical point - why does the plant act this way? Just like humans, plants will not waste energy doing something without a purpose.

Mimosa plants are very tasty plants. Animals see their lush bushes and think, jackpot! The animal will come over, take a big bite and start chewing. The plant obviously doesn't want to get eaten so it will curl up and fall over (play dead). By the time the animal is ready for another bite the plant will look like it has disappeared. Not wanting to waste time eating a shabby bush, the animal will leave.

Thanks to evolution, the mimosa learned a cute trick to stay alive.

Way to go, plants!