The Botany of Desire Review

The Botany of Desire was an interesting book. I can't say I was captivated by it but to say it was horrible would be dishonest. It was interesting to have a perspective of plants; apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. Pollan, author, takes the reader through an in depth history of each plant then relating how each plays a specific role in society today. The apple's sweetness, the tulip's beauty, marijuana's mind altering properties, and potatoes' control. He takes in account his own experience with each plant, yes even weed, to explain the importance to society. As he takes a more naturalistic view on much of the material, he does include a fair amount of scientific reasoning. The one that stood out the most was the influece marijuana had on the scientific community, that is the discovery of anandamide, the brain's pain-killer. Scientists discovered that the brain had THC, the chemical in marijuana, like receptors, or rather THC mimiced those receptors. It was this discovery that allowed scientists to dwelve deeper into the human brain.