apothecary

There are more than 50 Chinese herbal apothecaries in the Los Angeles area, according to Willie So, sales director of Chinatown-based Solstice Medicine, a leading distributor of traditional Chinese medicine products since 1979.

Called the Bohemian Chemist, it’s a dispensary with the vibe of an Art Deco apothecary.

A few minutes later, I walked up the street to an herbal apothecary that offers rose quartz crystals alongside dropper-bottle tinctures labeled “Happiness.”

Sweethearts — also known as conversation hearts — were created in 1847, when a Boston pharmacist named Oliver Chase invented a machine that made it easier to create apothecary lozenges.

Paleontologists first discovered Gigantopithecus in the mid-1930s in a Hong Kong apothecary where the ape’s unusually large molars were being hawked as “dragon teeth.”