Mark Blumenthal is one of the best known scholars interested in medicinal plants and ethnobotany. This beautifully written and well organized 480 page guide is intended primarily for health professionals, but its main points are understandable by non-herbal professionals or laypersons. This book is considered an excellent reference in the field of herbal medicine from clincial perspective. It is accredited as a continous education course for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dietitians, researchers, herbalists, consumers, and people engaged in phyto-pharmaceutical based industries. The book is organized into four main sections as follow: Introduction, Herb chapters, where each chapter is specified for a herb, Proprietary Herbal Product Monographs, and Appendix.
Section one, constsis of two parts. Part one gives an introduction about herbal medicine, its history, safety, legal and regulatory status, rational phytotherapy, and evidence-base medicine. The information contained is compiled by a team of professionals including MDs and is the result of an extensive research of the available literature. The consumer section (called patient information sheet) contains a short and easy to read description of most commonly used herbals alongwith an overview, uses, dosage, duration of administration, chemistry, pharmacological actions, mechanisms of action, containdications adverse effects, drug ineractions, and AHPA Safety Rating of each herb. While part two gives an idea about the book, its purpose, and why the herbs in this book were selected. Section two gives clinical reviews, patients sheets, and single herb monograph for the following 29 herbs: Bilberry, Black Cohosh, Cat’s Claw, Cayenne, Chamomile, Chaste Tree, Cranberry, Echinacea, Eleuthero, Ephedra, Evening Primrose Oil, Feverfew, Flax, Garlic, Ginger, Ginkgo, Ginseng (American and Asian), Goldenseal, Hawthorn, Horse Chestnut, Kava, Licorice, Milk Thistle, Peppermint, Saw Palmetto, St. John’s Wort, Tea (black and green), Valerian, respectively. The clinical overviews are written for physicians, who would be better served to read this book, and other health care professionals. In addition, a table of clinical studies, if any, is listed at the end of the herb monograph. Section three, has propietary herb product monograph for the following: pycnogenol (French Marin Pine Bark extract), Alluna, Esberitox, Euvegal, Hochuekki-to, Hova, Liv.52, Mastodynon, Nutrilite, Padma, Phytodolor, Prostagutt, and Sinupert. Finally, section four, has an appendix which contains, a list of reviewers, general reference, tabels of commercial products used in clinical studies, and proprietary herbal product monograph, a list of company contact information for commercial products used in the clinical studies, and top-selling herbal supplements in food, drug, and mass market retail outlets, a list of recent studies, abbreviation and symbols, and glossary.
The book contains a wealth of information and is scientifically based. This book should be on every clinic and pharmacy reference shelves. I hope that this book also receive attention of producers of herbal based remedies.