Amazon.com Review
Find a natural solution to problems ranging from acne to arrhythmia. Herbal Guide brings the thousand-year science of herbal medicine into the digital age.
The Herbal Guide is simple and straightforward. Users can choose to look at herbs, which are sorted by their medical delivery system--such as tea, pills, ointments, etc.--or cruise all of the available categories. These databases are then cross-indexed to match particular ailments. When you click on a disorder, all of the applicable herbal treatments pop up in a window to the right of the ailment list. Photographs of each herb are provided along with a short essay about its history, applications, and the correct dosages required for effective treatment.
This database is a great herbal resource for beginners. It excludes more esoteric plants, the ones that are most likely to have toxic effects. Even the milder subset of herbs that are included in the listing comes with careful and explicit warnings about incorrect usage of the plant medicines described. Finally, Herbal Guide also comes with a glossary of common medical terms that users will come across in the course of using the program.
Herbal Guide is an application with a very tight focus and no extraneous features. It will not connect users to herbal databases online or make any assessments of personalized medical data. An attractively packaged compilation of herbal lore, it assumes that users will take the information they glean from the package and head straight for the nearest health store. In other words, it does not have a complex search engine or provide data on such topics as cultivating herbs or collecting them in the wild.
Users with minor health complaints who want to dip their toes into the widening pool of alternative medicines will find the Herbal Guide to be a refreshing and educational place to start. --Alyx Dellamonica
Amazon.com Product Description
Herbal Guide is a practical guide to the healing properties of herbs. It will help you locate appropriate herbs for a headache, sore throat, or over 250 other common ailments. Full-color photos show you exactly what the herbs look like, both as they grow in the wild and in processed form. The Selection Wheel helps you find ointments, teas, liquids, pills, or other forms of herbs. There is advice from a chartered herbalist on dosage, preparation, benefits, and safety concerns. And you can take along the CD-ROM's print-friendly information on your next trip to the health store.