OLEANDER

OLADES

LATIN NAME: NERIUM OLEANDER

MOTHERLAND: MEDITERRANEAN

Symbol of Hiroshima

After the atomic bomb dropped on August 6, 1945, it was said that no plant would grow for at least 70 years in Hiroshima, and 28 years later in 1973, the first plant to sprout naturally from the soil was the Oleander, and before moving on to tales and stories, we should state how extraordinary this plant is.

As a result of the studies carried out by scientists in the face of this strange situation, they made the following statement, on condition that they would give the honor of the oleander plant; The reason why the oleander plant grows in this area may be the contribution of the clean soil layers carried by typhoons and storms that occurred over time. After this, the oleander plant was accepted as the symbol of the city of Hiroshima.

Although the theologians think that the Rose of Jericho mentioned in the Bible and the devil's tree growing at the bottom of Hell mentioned in the Quran are oleander, there is no definite opinion about them yet.

The water obtained by boiling the leaves and flowers of the oleander plant, which has been considered deadly poisonous since ancient times, has been used as an insecticide in the past.

With the development of chemistry, it has been understood that the poisonous effect is caused by a type of cardiac glycoside found in high amounts in oleander flowers and leaves and causing tachycardia.

A total of 200 drug patents have been granted by WIPO in the fields of oncology, dermatology and cardiology since 1973 regarding the effective ingredient of the oleander plant, oleandrin, which has been used as a medicine by different methods since ancient times, especially among the people living in the Mediterranean basin.

After all this scientific information, let's end our oleander topic with the sad love stories of Leander and Hero in Greek mythology.

According to the story, Prince Leander, who lives on the Thracian side of the Dardanelles, and Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite living on the Anatolian coast, fall in love with each other. Hero shines a torch from the tower of the temple to the opposite shore every night, revealing her location, so that Leander swims to her, and the lovers begin to meet in this way. Angered by this situation, Aphrodite extinguishes Hero's torch one night, and Leander, who has lost his way, drowns and dies of exhaustion. When Hero finds Leander's body on the seashore in the morning, she laments, "O Leander, O Leander." Leander has a flower in his hand. Taking this flower and planting it in memory of her lover Leander, Hero names the flower Oleander, as she calls it out in lamentation, "O Leander." In ancient Greek and Latin, it is still known today by its international name, Oleander.