Customer Reviews

Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Herbal Medicine Of The American Southwest: A Guide To The Identification, Collection, Preparation, And Use Of Medicinal And Edible Plants Of The Southwestern United States by practicing herbalist Charles W. Kane (Tucson Clinic of Botanical Medicine) and featuring elegant and accurate illustrations by Frank S. Rose is the "user-friendly" and easy to use guide perfect for exactly what is described in the title. Herbal Medicine Of The American Southwest informs the reader of how to find the plant, how to prepare it, what it can be used for, what side effects may occur, and what resources might be necessary to further define the plant, giving the overall book a very definitive and notable study of the plants it features. Herbal Medicine Of The American Southwest is highly recommended to all naturalists living in the southwest of America, as well as organic studies students, however especially recommended to all inhabitants of the featured area.

This work by Charles Kane is an extremely helpful book to have for any level herbalist. I have been studying, using and now, teaching herbal medicine for 20 years and I refer to this book often for Sonoran and southern Utah herbs.

Mr. Kane's work is not only accurate (not to be taken for granted in herb books), it is also very well organized and user friendly. He comes from an experienced, hands-on perspective, rather than an academic, theoretical one. He seems like the kind of herbalist who definitely gets dirt under his fingernails!

My one complaint is the book does not cover plants above 5000' in the American southwest. It is a very 'deserty' compilation and is ideal for people in the Tucson-Phoenix region. For those of you looking for a high elevation herbal, get Michael Moore's work. For anyone else, get 3 of Kane's books- one for the house, one for the vehicle and one for a friend. You won't be sorry!

My scores are based on the usefulness of this book for foraging medicinal plants.

Overall rating: 4 stars

Number of plants: 3 stars

Treatment lists: 4 stars

Treatment details: 3 stars

Picture types: color photographs, color paintings

Plant identification: 3 stars

Who will find it useful: novice to expert herbalists, homeschoolers, medical professionals, preparedness & self-sufficient folks, chemists

Notes: The best thing about this book is its easy-to-understand explanations of how the chemistry of the plants interact with the body and how to extrapolate these effects to other plants containing similar chemicals. The author's writing style is very colorful and engaging yet also very clear and his medical background adds a high level trustworthiness to his words. The book covers plant treatments for many common complaints and illnesses such as skin rashes, cramping, arthritis, stomach issues, insomnia and other day-to-day aliments. Unfortunately it lacks a good cross-reference between aliment and plant cure, but the book is so pleasant to read that reading it cover-to-cover isn't a chore.

This is the most science-based herbal book I've read, but you don't need a science background to understand it. However, since I am a chemist I find this book to be my most trusted herbal reference guide. His footnoting and and reference lists are second to none. While the plants he writes about are mainly found in the arid southwest, the biochemical interactions of these plants can be applied to other plants found throughout North America. His glossary is also more comprehensive than that of most other medicinal herb books.

This is an excellent reference book. It is a little dry and the pictures were all in the center rather than with the plant descriptions. I'm sure that was done to save on printing costs--the pictures are on high glossy paper and there are photos as well as phenomenal drawings by Frank Rose. The photos and drawings are probably the best I've ever seen in this type of book. Instead of cross-referencing the pictures to the descriptions the photos are alphabetized making making finding the picture very easy.

The book is well-written and an excellent reference especially for anyone living in the southwest. When the author does tell personal stories about experiences with the plants, (finding them or using them) they are very good. I wish more of these personal notes were in the book because they were enjoyable, but I suppose there was only so much paper.

Charles Kane is not your average herbalist. Throw away dated notions of what an herbalist is, what one should look like, and that they are all flakes, hippies, or long haired New Age types. Charlie is NONE of those things... but he is an armed forces Vet, a back country woodsman, a good marksman, and an OUTSTANDING herbalist and teacher. He studied under the late Michael Moore, but evolved into an herbalist of his own; with his own values, and a non flowery, non New Age, non hippy practice.

The book is outstanding and will stand the test of time. Very highly recommended for students and the curious, as well as those looking for an accurate indigenous plant guide of the Southwest.

this is an excellent book for newcomers to wildcrafting and medicne processing. the excellent pictures follow up with the medica info for each plant. these plants are easily found with the right description/photos both of which are detailed in this book. thank you Mr. Kane.

I bought this book specifically FOR the color photographs - we live in the southwest and it's of course much easier to identify a plant if you can already see it in a color photograph (many of the books we'd looked at were black and white drawings or photographs).

The added bonus is that it is chock full of information and a nice, easy-to-read format - just enough information for the budding herbalist, while just enough science to appease those with a lot more experience. Happy to have this one in my library and would highly recommend it to anyone living in the American Southwest with an interest in herbal medicines.

Great book lots of pictures lots of medicinal info. absolutley great book for any survivalist backpacker or somebody who wants to live off the land. I have no complaints!!!!!!!!!!

Charles Kane has produced a really useful work. I think he is better than Michael Moore, however like others, I would like to see more personal uses. More personality. I have too many herbal books by very good authors. Herbal Medicine of the American SW is included in my top 5. This is how herbal books should be written. Teaching, informing the reader. Giving instructions.

Kane gives detailed instructions on how to use percolation as a distilling method, how to make tea, how much to use, how long to infuse it. He left nothing out.

My only bugaboos with this book is his usage of terms the average person does not know. 'Macrophage', 'parenchymal'. And the drawings, there are no references to pages elsewhere in the book of what they are. [as another writer wrote, excellent drawings]

For the next books, I would like to see better proofing and references to what page the instructions for salve/tea/etc making are on.

However if one were to pick one herbal book to have, for newbie to seasoned, this would be it.

This book was recommended to me by a Herbal healer from the Tuscon Area, I think that anyone would find it a valuable addition to their libreary