Hikado

"The Greeks ground up dried rhubarb root and used it as a laxative," The Daily Telegraph says. "Knowing the British were also partial to rhubarb, the imperial Chinese commissioner Lin Zexu wrote a letter to Queen Victoria in 1839 threatening that unless Britain stopped sending opium to China, the Chinese would refuse to export powdered rhubarb, thereby killing her citizens by constipation. The Queen appears not to have had the letter translated. But [Lin] hadn't realized that rhubarb grows abundantly in Britain."

The Globe and Mail. "Social Studies" June 27, 2008.