Rhubarb, Marmots and Plague

Curiously, the Second Plague Pandemic came to Europe a short time after Marco Polo announced where medicinal rhubarb could be found: in the market of 'Succuir' in modern Gansu Province, China. The Pandemic ended shortly after the Russians established their trading base at Kiakhta, on the border with the then Chinese dependency of Mongolia in 1727. Equally intriguingly, in Mongolia and northwest China, wild rhubarbs are closely associated with marmots, well- known carriers of the plague causing Yersinia pestis bacillus. This study examines the evidence from both modern and historic documents in an effort to establish if the coincidence of the trade in medicinal rhubarb and key events of the Second Plague Pandemic is more than that.