Human Flower Project
The Mind of a Daffodil
Researchers have found a treatment for dementia growing in the Black Mountains of mid-Wales.
Daffodils at Caerphilly Castle
Photo: A Day Tour to Wales
“I wandered lonely as a cloud….”
Perhaps the flowers that illuminated William Wordsworth’s mind can help Alzheimer’s patients, too.
Two Welsh universities have joined forces to develop production of a species of daffodil native to Wales’ Black Mountains. Certain varieties of the Welsh national flower, they say, are natural sources of galanthamine, a chemical compound used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
Alzheimer’s disease affects one of every 20 people over the age of 65 and one in five people over the age of 80. “The areas of the brain that control memory and thinking skills are affected first, but as the disease progresses, cells die in other regions of the brain.”
Engineers from Cardiff University and environmental scientists from University of Wales, Aberystwyth, are hoping to boost production of daffodils in the Black Mountains. “The potential for Welsh hill farms is huge,” said one marketing expert from Cardiff U.. “The benefits are extensive, not only to Welsh bioscience and the pharmaceutical industry, but also to the ageing population.”
The scientists are working to ascertain the optimal time for harvesting and to develop more than one daffodil crop per year.
(Caution: Daffodil bulbs are poisonous. Mistaking them for onions, people have died from eating the flower bulbs.)