The energy seeds and herbs of the Amazon Rainforest.

In this sweeping chronicle of guarana—a glossy-leaved Amazonian vine packed with more caffeine than any other plant—Seth Garfield develops a wide-ranging approach to the history of Brazil itself. The story begins with guarana as the pre-Columbian cultivar of the Satere-Mawe people in the Lower Amazon region, where it figured centrally in the Indigenous nation's origin stories, dietary regimes, and communal ceremonies. During subsequent centuries of Portuguese colonialism and Brazilian rule, guarana was reformulated by settlers, scientists, folklorists, food technologists, and marketers. Whether in search of pleasure, profits, professional distinction, or patriotic markers, promoters imparted new meanings to guarana and found new uses for it. Today, it is the namesake ingredient of a multibillion-dollar soft drink industry and a beloved national symbol. Guarana's journey elucidates human impacts on Amazonian ecosystems; the circulation of knowledge, goods, and power; and the promise of modernity in Latin America's largest nation. For Garfield, the beverage's history reveals not only the structuring of inequalities in Brazil but also the mythmaking and ordering of social practices that constitute so-called traditional and modern societies.

Pushed by the increase in the knowledge of herbal drug constituents, their effects, and side effects, many herbal products are undergoing a transition from classic herbal teas to standardized extracts. This new edition takes the advances made in medicinal plants research and phytotherapy into account and offers reliable and essential information. It offers comprehensive discussion of the origins, constituents, effects, indications, and dosage of herbal drugs and phytopharmaceuticals. The text also includes phytopharmaceutical information such as types of extraction solvents, drug-to-extract ratios, and dosage recommendations for extracts.

This report from the Committee on Military Nutrition Research reviews the history of caffeine usage, the metabolism of caffeine, and its physiological effects. The effects of caffeine on physical performance, cognitive function and alertness, and alleviation of sleep deprivation impairments are discussed in light of recent scientific literature. The impact of caffeine consumption on various aspects of health, including cardiovascular disease, reproduction, bone mineral density, and fluid homeostasis are reviewed. The behavioral effects of caffeine are also discussed, including the effect of caffeine on reaction to stress, withdrawal effects, and detrimental effects of high intakes. The amounts of caffeine found to enhance vigilance and reaction time consistently are reviewed and recommendations are made with respect to amounts of caffeine appropriate for maintaining alertness of military personnel during field operations. Recommendations are also provided on the need for appropriate labeling of caffeine-containing supplements, and education of military personnel on the use of these supplements. A brief review of some alternatives to caffeine is also provided.

Winner - 2022 Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association Beginning in the 1920s, audiences around the globe were seduced not only by Hollywood films but also by lavish movie theaters that were owned and operated by the major American film companies. These theaters aimed to provide a quintessentially “American” experience. Outfitted with American technology and accoutrements, they allowed local audiences to watch American films in an American-owned cinema in a distinctly American way. In a history that stretches from Buenos Aires and Tokyo to Johannesburg and Cairo, Ross Melnick considers these movie houses as cultural embassies. He examines how the exhibition of Hollywood films became a constant flow of political and consumerist messaging, selling American ideas, products, and power, especially during fractious eras. Melnick demonstrates that while Hollywood’s marketing of luxury and consumption often struck a chord with local audiences, it was also frequently tone-deaf to new social, cultural, racial, and political movements. He argues that the story of Hollywood’s global cinemas is not a simple narrative of cultural and industrial indoctrination and colonization. Instead, it is one of negotiation, booms and busts, successes and failures, adoptions and rejections, and a precursor to later conflicts over the spread of American consumer culture. A truly global account, Hollywood’s Embassies shows how the entanglement of worldwide movie theaters with American empire offers a new way of understanding film history and the history of U.S. soft power.

An illustrated compendium of information on plants and their diverse therapeutic properties and benefits brings together folklore, scientific research, and medical theory to describe hundreds of plants and their origins.--

"Many parents today are turning to or seeking information about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for their children. Whether you initiate alternative therapies or simply need to respond when asked for information or advice, it's crucial to have the most recent, evidence-based information about alternative therapies and know how to safely and effectively integrate them with conventional treatment. This innovative and reliable reference is the ideal resource to have at hand." "This book includes a wide range of complementary and alternative therapies, focusing on those most often used with children: mind/body approaches, manual therapies, lifestyle approaches, alternative systems, energy medicine, and biological agents. Within these main categories, therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, homeopathy, herbs, and magnets are covered." "Fifty-five common pediatric conditions are comprehensively discussed, with diagnostic and evidence-based treatment information, followed by authoritative information on the major CAM therapies available for treatment of the condition. Whenever possible, an integrative approach that combines conventional and alternative approaches is presented."--BOOK JACKET.

Nonvitamin and Nonmineral Nutritional Supplements compiles comprehensive information and recent findings on supplements found in today's market. The book focuses on non-essential nutrients, animal extracts, yeast and fungi extracts, and plant and algae extracts used as supplements. Readers will find valuable insights on the impact of dietary supplementation on human health, along with an understanding of the positive and negative aspects of each supplement. - Provides reliable information on available supplements to inform nutritional practices - Presents each supplement's sources, availability, health benefits, drawbacks, and possible interactions with other supplements, food or drugs - Serves as a guide to non-essential nutrients, plant and algae extracts, animal extracts, including bee products and shark cartilage, and supplements from yeast and fungi

This quick-glance reference helps students and health professionals educate themselves and their patients/clients about the scientific evidence for and against more than 120 popular dietary supplements. Supplements are logically grouped into 12 chapters based on their primary desired effect, such as weight loss, joint support, and sports performance enhancement. The authors give each supplement a one-to-five-star rating based on the level of scientific substantiation for each of its major claimed effects. The book highlights crucial safety issues regarding each supplement and sets forth recommended dosages for particular effects. A quick-reference appendix lists all the supplements alphabetically with their star ratings.

Sporting Blackness examines issues of race and representation in sports films, exploring what it means to embody, perform, play out, and contest blackness by representations of Black athletes on screen. By presenting new critical terms, Sheppard analyzes not only “skin in the game,” or how racial representation shapes the genre’s imagery, but also “skin in the genre,” or the formal consequences of blackness on the sport film genre’s modes, codes, and conventions. Through a rich interdisciplinary approach, Sheppard argues that representations of Black sporting bodies contain “critical muscle memories”: embodied, kinesthetic, and cinematic histories that go beyond a film’s plot to index, circulate, and reproduce broader narratives about Black sporting and non-sporting experiences in American society.