Graybeard wrote:
If you really want to get into a discussion of the biochemistry of antibiotics here, we can do that; there are people present who actually know something about the subject (paging Gaalec, and btw, Slamlander, I'm really impressed at the number of things you're wrong about on this one).
Well, considering that I flunked Organic Chem, no wonder, doh!
I cook and I make my herbs the same way, I follow recipies, with modifications. I'm a physicist/engineer and don't mind bio-sciences types knowing shit that looks like magic to me
However, I do know a bit of herbal. I make Willow bark tea and know which California mushrooms won't destroy your kidneys. I also know which combination of spices to use to get just the right amount of afterburn in your chile, burritos, or Nasi Goreng. Is there a science to it, no way. That stuff is ritual and magic (art), supplanted by a lot of trial and error, to me.
However, I am also an historian and you would be surprised at greco-roman and chinese pharmacopae. It's a hobby of mine.
All I'm saying is that it doesn't take high-tech to have a basic pharmacology.