Pharmacognostic Collection

Göttingen University's Pharmacognostic Collection was established in 1836 by the Göttingen pharmacologist Heinrich August Ludwig Wiggers. The collection served primarily as reference material in the identification of plants for production of medicines. By the time of Wiggers? death, the collection had grown to some 5,000 items. The estate left by Carl F.W. Mettenheimer, an apothecary resident in Giessen, expanded the collection further by approximately 1,900 items. After the pharmaceutical department of Göttingen University ceased operations in 1935, the Pharmacognostic Collection was forgotten. Packed into wooden crates, it survived in the attic of the Botanical Institute until its chance rediscovery in 1997. The objects were then examined, entered in a database and housed in a collection room in the department of Systematic Botany.
Today, the collection consists of around 8,500 items, 7,543 of which are registered in the collection catalogue. Although the collection has no curator's position as such, the holdings are made available for research purposes by the department of Systematic Botany.
The Pharmacognostic Collection contains a cross section of the medicinal plants dating from the 19th century, many of them preserved in their original jars and boxes carrying the original labels and seals. In addition to pharmaceutical plants, which are present primarily in the form of leaves, seeds and bark, the collection contains some items of animal origin such as musk glands, elk hoofs, cochineals (scale insects) and sponges. The collection also holds some especially noteworthy individual items such as the first arrow poison, which arrived in Germany during the 19th century and was analysed by Justus Liebig, a piece of bark from the 'monkey pot tree' collected by Alexander von Humboldt in South America, and oddities such as lizards in lavender flowers. A jar full of raw opium that originally formed part of the collection has in the meantime been handed over to the police.


View into a collection cabinet.
In total, 7,543 collection items have already been catalogued and assigned a serial number. The numbers are to be seen at the base of the glass jars.


Fruit and seed exhibits.
Examples of medicinal plants. From left to right: poppy fruits, seeds of the castor bean, fruits of dill and coriander.


Roots of the great yellow gentian (left) and a ginger plant (right). The original seal of the gentian specimen is still present.


Zoological items.
The great majority of the items making up the pharmacological collection originate from the world of plants. But specimens of animal origin are also present. The beetles in the jar, right, bear the name ?Spanish fly?. These creatures were ground up and utilised as potency remedies.