Customer Reviews

Medicinal Plants of the World

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This really is a great addition to your shelf if you're an ethnobotanist, botanist, or health practitioner. The book is very user-friendly and has all of the medicinal plants from the German Commission E monographs, the new ESCOP and WHO's (World Health Organization) medicinal plant monographs. The entries are short, but packed with synonymous names, origin, useful parts, uses, preparation/dosage information, warnings, and status. The listing of active ingredients is quite nice -- and more explicit than many similar sources. There is additional information on over 900 additional medicinally-useful plants in the appendix. In addition to useful and easy-use-indexes, the book has a nice introductory section. The summary information on botanical medicine use in numerous cultures is more complete than the usual reference of this sort. The text is clearly written and the book itself is of high quality with crisp photos, easy-to-read print, a solid hardcover binding. It's definitely worth the price and makes a good, easy reference.

In the past few years, I have become more interested in herbal remedies and essential oils. Although I have obtained a few good books from the essential oil sources concerning their products, I have also taken the time to investigate and cross-reference material from other sources. Hence, my purchase of MEDICINAL PLANTS by Ben-Erik van Wyk and Michael Wink. While Rodale's book on Herbs provided me with information about how to grow selected plants, and THE REFERENCE GUIDE FOR ESSENTIAL OILS by Connie and Alan Higley explained how to apply the oils - make infusions and/or nebulize oils, MEDICINAL PLANTS provides information about the botany of these plants as well as a history of their various applications within the framework of health systems such as `Aromatherapy', `Homeopathy', and traditional medicine -- Chinese, Ayurvedic, or something else.

You will sometimes hear it said, probably by disingenuous spokespersons for international Pharmaceutical and/or Petro-Chemical companies or their ilk, that nontraditional treatments such as the application of essential oils is dangerous because the most of the oils, herbs, etc. have not been "government tested". The truth is, most have been tested, just not perhaps by the US FDA (some have been "officially" tested, but many carry GRAS or "generally regarded as safe" ID, many have been found safe and efficacious in Europe or Canada). In addition, traditional medicines from China and India represent thousands of years of testing though trial and error and outcome. Some of these remedies are so old you will never discover their origin while the origins of others are well known. Lastly, not everything is known about many "modern" medicines which are generally subjected to shorter periods of inquiry before they are released for commerce.

Now, this does not mean you should use any old plant wily-nily. Of course not. And, these authors recommend you seek professional help in the form of a traditional healer before you apply a tincture, ointment, etc. made with a natural product. But books like this volume by a reputable European source are a good place to begin educating yourself. Some plants have known side effects and some can kill. "Fortunately", the authors write, "herbal drugs or botanical(s) have a large therapeutic window between the `effective' dose and the `toxic' dose."

Plants can be sources for vitamins and minerals, sports medicine, and food. It may surprise you to learn that many so-called "modern" medicines have a natural basis (aspirin and digitalis, to name but two). Perusing this book, I was surprised to see how many of these medicinal plants I grow in my own yard. This beautiful book includes about 325 pages of color photos and text depicting and describing various plants and plant parts with 1-2 entries per page. In the back you will find an index linking traditional medicines and ailments and a `Quick Guide to Commercialised Medicinal Plants" which will tell you among other things that `Modern Medicine' has appropriated a number of traditional plant sources for its own uses.

On 10 July 2005, I purchased the original hardback version, as published by Briza in Pretoria (in the bookshop attached to the Game Park at Hluhlwe-Imfolozi [pronounced 'Shosoolayzee-Imfolozee'] north of Durban). Among all the guides to phytology and botanical chemistry that I own, I have found van Wyk's beautifully-illustrated reference to be the most honest regarding side effects, as well as the best 'first reference' to regional applications of various herbs throughout the world. The attached appendices (viz. "Overview of Secondary Metabolites and their Effects" and "Quick Guide to Commercialized Medicinal Plants") are enormously helpful as one keys basic biochemistry and determines 'who sells what to whom and where.' The index is a model of its kind, including all Linnaean names, as well as 'common' names, with a good selection of African species south of the Congo. In company with the classic A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man by George Usher (London, 1974), van Wyk's assemblage almost always narrows a 'search' for a particular herb so that one can pursue it accurately in more advanced references of phytochemistry and medical botany.

Excellent color photographs, sufficient to identify the medicinal plants in the wild, along with an very good overview of medicinal chemistry and uses of medicinal plants makes this book a "must have" for people interested in pharmacognosy. An excellent value for the cost.

"Medicinal Plants of the World" strikes a wonderful balance between being exhaustive and too cursory, the book reviews the medicinal properties of approximately 300 plants and discusses some proposed mechanisms of action. Importantly, it carefully points out that there still is a large knowledge gap and that we know very little how these plants exert the effects. The authors point out that, in contrast to standard pharmaceutical treatments, plants contain a large number of different chemicals that may have an effect in combination, which cannot be fully understood based on the properties of each individual chemical. Lastly, the photos are of good quality and are helpful in identifying the plant in the "wild". One aspect that would have been useful for the relative novice is to provide a quick guide to identifying these plants using the botanical characteristics (leaves etc.) of the plants.

The photos are really very helpful to identify the plants. Often you realize that plants you know and see everyday are usable herbs.
The book is very systematically. It is not the type of herb books that tells that herbs can do everything and it is not very enthusiastic about herbs, but I find it most usfull.

My teacher of 40 years loves this book. It was recommended highly because the detail and accurate information published in this book. It is a great reference book to have for anyone who wants to practice or just be informed about herbalism.

I had to have this book for a class I'm taking for a course in Alternative Medicine. This is a great book and an excellent reference book. It is concise in content but
covers so many plants and herbs. I usually resell my text books after I am finished with my class but this is one I would never part with!

Great reference. Not only informative and pictorial (photos), but also a good reference to medicinal uses for ailments in the back and secondary metabolites and their effects. Great inclusion for the library :-)

The collaborative effort of Ben-Erik Van Wyk and Michael Wink,Medicinal Plants Of The World isn't just another casual listing of plants and their homeopathic applications: it's an in-depth, scientifically accurate, superbly presented, seminal survey and guide to the best-known medicinal plants and describes over three hundred plants and relatives with short descriptions, geographic origins, therapeutic category, historical and modern uses, and active ingredients. Add 700 color photos to help identification and a checklist of the top 900 plants listed by scientific and common name and you have a reference that health care professionals will relish and refer to time and time again.