The Caribbean is host to one of the most diverse areas of the whole world - both culturally and ecologically. This book takes a look at some of the herbs and medicinal plants found in the Caribbean, a place awash with ancient herbal remedies for a number of common ailments. With advice on how to use them wisely, moderately and regularly, it also explores some of the myths and legends associated with these herbs and plants.

The Caribbean is host to one of the most diverse areas of the whole world - both culturally and ecologically. This book takes a look at some of the herbs and medicinal plants found in the Caribbean, a place awash with ancient herbal remedies for a number of common ailments. With advice on how to use them wisely, moderately and regularly, it also explores some of the myths and legends associated with these herbs and plants.

Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics establishes the central importance of plants to the histories and cultures of the extended tropical region stretching from the U.S. South to Argentina. Through close examination of a number of significant plants – cacao, mate, agave, the hevea brasilensis, kudzu, the breadfruit, soy, and the ceiba pentandra, among others – this volume shows that vegetal life has played a fundamental role in shaping societies and in formulating cultural and environmental imaginaries in and beyond the region. Drawing on a wide range of cultural traditions and forms across literature, popular music, art, and film, the essays included in this volume transcend regional and linguistic boundaries to bring together multiple plant-centred histories or ‘understories’ – narratives that until now have been marginalized or gone unnoticed. Attending not only to the significant influence of humans on plants, but also of plants on humans, this book offers new understandings of how colonization, globalization, and power were, and continue to be, imbricated with nature in the American tropics.

Describing the medicinal uses of over 2,700 plants by 218 Native American tribes, the author organizes his extensive research into eighty-two categories--including contraceptives, gastrointestinal aids, sedatives, toothache remedies, and more--and provides indexes arranged by tribe, usage, and common name, as well as 150 line drawings.

A resource organized by body system lists the key herbal remedies available, their uses, and cautionary advice, in a book that includes full-color photos, a glossary and several thematic indexes.

This Handbook contains the brief information on medicinal plants mainly used in Indian Systems of Medicine. Nearly 1000 plant species belonging to 164 families either used as main sources of the drugs or as their substitutes and adulterants are given in it. The drug plants have been given familywise following the Bentham and Hooker's system of classification. The brief information about the drug plants i.e. Names (Sanskrit & Botanical) habit of the plants, part(s) used in medicine, main properties/uses and broadly the name of area(s) where the plants naturally occur has been given in tabular form. The names of common substitutes and adulterants of important drug plants have also been provided. Indexes of botanical and Sanskrit names have also been given at the end. The book has been written in a very easy and simple manner, so that an average reader can follow it. The specific features of this small reference book are: (a) The information, including the names of substitutes and adulterants are given in tabular form, so that one can see it at a glance. (b) The book can be kept easily is hand in field and other places. (c) Important medicinal plants of the families have been indicated. (d) The book contains nearly all those plants which are prescribed in various courses of Ayurveda, pharmacy, Medico-botany etc. The book is useful to the students, teachers, researchers on medicinal plants, herbal based pharmaceutical concerned, N.G.O's and other those who are interested in medicinal plants.

This volume provides a well illustrated, easily read, and no-nonsense guide to Jamaican wild herbs and their several medicinal and related uses. The widespread cultural practice of using a multitude of healing, culinary, and cosmetic herbs is distilled to a core of about 70 species.

Ivan Ross takes advantage of the significant growth in the amount of new data available to update and expand his much acclaimed Medicinal Plants of the World: Chemical Constituents, Traditional and Modern Medicinal Uses, Volume 1. This considerably enhanced second edition contains new research and references on the immunomodulatory activity present in Allium sativum, Mangifera indica, and Punica granatum, the antidiabetic effects of Momoridica charantia and Mucuna pruriens, the antiinflammatory activity found in Mangifera indica and Arbus precatorius, the cholesterol lowering effect of Allium sativum and Moringa pterygosperma, and the antitumor effect of Arbus precatorius and Moringa pterygosperma. There are also important new findings concerning the antiherpes simplex virus activity of Mangifera indica, the anti-Parkinson's activity of Mucuna pruriens, the antiviral activity in Phyllanthus niruri and Jatropha curcas, the hyperthyroid regulation properties of Moringa pterygosperma, and the antioxidant activity of Mangifera indica, Punica granatum, Psidium guajava, and Allium sativum. Allium sativum is highlighted for its treatment of unstable angina pectoris, sickle red blood cell dehydration inhibition, senescence ameliorative, chemoprotective, cardiovascular, antineoplastic, anticarcinogenic, and antiatherogenic effects. This revised and enhanced edition provides details on traditional medicinal uses, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, clinical trials, color illustrations, Latin names, botanical descriptions, as well as providing an index and extensive bibliographies. Authoritative and exhaustively compiled, Medicinal Plants of the World: Chemical Constituents, Traditional and Modern Medicinal Uses, Volume 1, 2nd Edition offers pharmacists, physicians, medicinal chemists, toxicologists, and phytochemists a universal reference on twenty-six of the most widely used medicinal plants in the world.

Barbados has a strong base in the practice of folklore botanical medicines. Consistent with the rest of the Caribbean, the practice is often criticized due to the lack of efficacy and safety testing of the plants. Cohall identifies common medicinal plants used historically and currently in Barbados for the treatment of common communicable and non-communicable diseases and describes the historical to current context of communicable and non-communicable diseases in Barbados. He also outlines the historical and current context of the use of medicinal plants, including factors influencing their use by Barbadians.The medicinal plants in the book were reviewed previously and grouped on their practice to treat communicable and noncommunicable diseases and also botanical classification. The identified phytochemicals from the plants were compared to established drug compounds approved for the conventional treatment of illnesses and also established phytochemicals. Medicinal Plants of Barbados will be of interest to Barbadians and other Caribbean nationals who use herbal remedies and are keen to validate their applications; it will also appeal to academics who wish to investigate these herbal remedies as sources of new drug compounds and clinicians who wish to be guided about possible drug?herb interactions.