Terrain Adventures
I finally made the venture out to Glen Mills, PA to visit Terrain's Garden Cafe and I was SO in love with the entire atmosphere of this absolute gem. Terrain is a home and garden center associated with Anthropologie, so of course everything is adorable, and rustic. Inside the garden center is a cafe as well with some of the most yummy food I've ever had. Paired with the wonderful spring weather, this whimsical place had me smiling the whole time.
The inside of the garden center itself is a dream boat. So many hanging lights, little succulent plants, and pretty colors.
The outside of the garden center brought back so many childhood memories. In my family's first home my dad kept a beautiful garden. I used to go with him all the time to our local family-owned garden store (whose name escapes me currently) to pick out flowers and plants. Unfortunately he hasn't had much time for gardening recently but I still get nostalgic every time I see a rose bush or hydrangeas.
I also managed to find my favorite flower, foxglove or Digitalis (pictured below). Believe it or not, the cardiac glycoside drug Digoxin was isolated from the Digitalis plant in the 1930s! Prior to some of our newer drugs for heart failure and atrial fibrillation, this drug was a wonder drug. It binds the Sodium Potassium ATPase pump, ultimately messing with ion flow and increasing intracellular calcium in the heart muscle to increase heart contractility and improve rhythm (which gets the heart working properly again)! Its now been largely replaced in cardiac regimens by safer drugs but this is a great example of the role plants play in pharmacy. Most people don't realize that 75%o of our drugs come from natural products like plants or flowers! We take plants like this and play around with them in the lab to purify and standardize the compounds that'll eventually become the drug. There's my pharmacy rant for the day haha!
Thanks for reading! I hope i've inspired you to look forward to the nicer weather thats coming!
0 comments