Plants, Cells and Bodies: The Molecular Biography of Colchicine, 1930—1975

It is rarely appreciated that biologically active molecules used in therapeutic regimes often have important strategic uses outside the body. These uses may precede, coincide with or proceed from their therapeutic function (Goodman, 1998). Or, as in the case of colchicine, the molecule that is the subject of this chapter, the non-therapeutic uses may form a complex, non-linear relationship with the therapeutic ones.