A great story about food, drugs, and chemistry is available online over at the Atlantic.
A quick look at the structures of coumarin and the drug known commercially as coumadin, both available from Wikipedia, will reveal their obvious similarities and differences. I remember reading about the history of the drug and the story of sweet clover disease in cows in my text books many years ago. Until I read the Atlantic story here, I didn't realize that coumarin itself has no anticoagulant activity.
So now, after reading the article, I would really love to try some tonka beans. Like many people I love vanilla, and I also love the smell of fresh mown hay.
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