Readers have come to depend on Jim Duke's comprehensive handbooks for their ease of use and artful presentation of scientific information. Following the successful format of his other CRC handbooks, Duke's Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible contains 150 herbs listed alphabetically and by scientific name. Each entry provides illustrations of the plant, synonyms, notes, common names, activities, indications, dosages, downsides and interactions, natural history, and extracts. It includes Biblical quotes as well as comments on points of interest.

This unique reference book meticulously lists a vast variety of the extensive South American flora, in particular the one of Venezuela. Pharmacists, pharmacologists, toxicologists and botanists will find that this encyclopaedia unprecedented in depth and detail. In an A-Z format, more than 80 plant families are covered. Botanical information of the individual species is given together with their specific use in traditional South American medicine. More than 250 detailed figures allow easy identification.

This volume, as the seventh of the series Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the World, deals with the medicinal and aromatic plant (MAPs) treasures of the so-called Southern Cone, the three southernmost countries (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) of South America. Similarly to the previous volumes of the series, the main focus is to collect and provide information on major aspects of botany, traditional usage, chemistry, production / collection practices, trade and utilization of this specific group of plants. The contributors, who are recognized professionals and specialist of the domain, have collected and present state of the art information on 41 species. Most of these are not only of interest from the scientific point of view, but hold also a potential for the prospective utilization of the decreasing, occasionally overexploited / endangered medicinal plant resources of this huge continent. The book is expected to serve as a source of information also on some less known or less studied species. As such the volume is expected to support future research and public health professionals.

This volume in the series deals with the major Medicinal and Aromatic Plants MAPs of South America, providing information on major aspects of this specific group of plants on that continent (botany, traditional usage, chemistry, production/collection practices, trade and utilization). Brazil, in particular, offers an immense amount of biodiversity, including plants with great pharmacological interest and medicinal importance. The Amazon Basin, in northern Brazil has a highly diverse biota and still harbours a variety of unknown and unstudied plant species for medicinal values. Contributions are from internationally recognized professionals, specialists of the Medicinal and Aromatic Plant domain and have been invited mostly from the members of the International Society for Horticultural Science and International Council for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.

An ethnography of magic-religious, medicinal and recreational tobacco use among nearly 300 native South American societies. Wilbert found that South American Indians use tobacco in many ways and that a close functional relation exists between tobacco and shamanism.

The fascinating account of a pioneering ethnobotanist’s travels in the Amazon—at once a gripping adventure story, a passionate argument for conservationism, and an investigation into the healing power of plants, by the author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know For thousands of years, healers have used plants to cure illness. Aspirin, the world's most widely used drug, is based on compounds originally extracted from the bark of a willow tree, and more than a quarter of medicines found on pharmacy shelves contain plant compounds. Now Western medicine, faced with health crises such as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, has begun to look to the healing plants used by indigenous peoples to develop powerful new medicines. Nowhere is the search more promising than in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical forest, home to a quarter of all botanical species on this planet—as well as hundreds of Indian tribes whose medicinal plants have never been studied by Western scientists. In Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin recounts his travels and studies with some of the most powerful Amazonian shamans, who taught him the plant lore their tribes have spent thousands of years gleaning from the rain forest. For more than a decade, Dr. Plotkin raced against time to harvest and record new plants before the rain forests' fragile ecosystems succumb to overdevelopment—and before the Indians abandon their own culture and learning for the seductive appeal of Western material culture. Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice relates nine of the author's quests, taking the reader along on a wild odyssey as he participates in healing rituals; discovers the secret of curare, the lethal arrow poison that kills in minutes; tries the hallucinogenic snuff epena that enables the Indians to speak with their spirit world; and earns the respect and fellowship of the mysterious shamans as he proves that he shares both their endurance and their reverence for the rain forest.

This exquisitely detailed, full-color field guide provides the identification details and practical information needed to find and properly use many of the medicinal plants and wild plant foods that provide chemicals necessary for optimum health and disease prevention. The book takes the user from simple and familiar plants ones that are less common and more difficult to identify. Each of the 122 plant entries includes a color photograph, plant description, and location. Plants are grouped according to how common or rare they are, as well as to where they are found: prairies, woodlands, mountains, deserts, and wetlands. Relevant facts about each plant include toxicity, historical uses, modern uses, as well as wildlife/veterinary uses. Additional information featured in this extraordinary field guide: explanations of how each plant affects the human body; cultural and ethnic uses of medicinal herbs and cooking spices; others creatures who consume the plants; a list of most recommended garden herbs; web site resources, and much more.