Customer Reviews

A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants

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My boss, who teaches graduate studies at UMD where Professor Jashemski also taught for many years recommended her works to me because he knew I had a keen interest in herbal medicine as well as archeology. A POMPEIAN HERBAL was published in 1999, a few short years after THE GARDENS OF POMPEII, HERCULANEUM, AND THE VILLAS DESTROYED BY VESUVIUS, which Jashemski co-edited with Frederick Meyer -- and a masterpiece on this topic and era -- was published.

The Pompeii Herbal demonstrates that medicinal plants have been around thousands of years, and in use until modern petrochemical compounds came on the scene. Furthermore, when Jashemski was working at Pompeii, she discovered the locals around and near Pompeii continued to use medicinal plants noted by the Romans, demonstrating yet again that herbal medicine and homeopathic remedies in use to day are not new. The book includes an informative text about ancient Roman medicinal uses of plants, many lovely photos of the work site and micron photos of seeds, pollens, etc., as well as illustrations of the noted plants.

I discovered reading Jashemski's book that many of the plants used by the ancient Romans grow in my own back yard or in pots - under my care of course, as they are not native to my area: Artemesia, Calamintha nepeta (cat mint), Centranthus ruber, Citrus limon. Foeniculum vulgare (Fennel) and Petroselinum crispum (Parsley) to name a few.