A book that's ahead of its time - it anticipates where Chinese herbal medicine is going in the Western world, rather than just about where it currently is.

Now a mandatory text at London's University of Westminster's Chinese herbal medicine course.

'... a considerable and original publication' - Charles Buck

'... should at least be an inclusion on all college and university reading lists. I would also commend it to practitioners keen on exploring further study in materia medica' - Brian May

'This book is a very welcome addition to the literature on Chinese herbs ... It contains a vast amount of information not otherwise available in the English language ... This book is to be commended to anyone who is interested in any facet of Chinese herbal medicines, but particularly their history and botany' - Professor Elizabeth Williamson, School of Pharmacy, University of Reading, UK in Phytotherapeutic Research

'The present text differs from other CHM publications in that it uniquely presents CHMs ... in a multidisciplinary way ... Of particular note are the careful explanations of the traditional Chinese classifications and concept of toxicity and of herb-herb interactions, ... information that is seldom presented by other books on Chinese medicinal plants.

'... three sections introducing botany, phytochemistry and pharmacokinetics ... provide basic information without being superficial and are written in a simple, explicit style ... It is pleasing to see such an emphasis on phytochemistry... this is sometimes overlooked or ignored in other herbal texts ... Likewise, the section on pharmacokinetics is laudable.

'The book does provide a very readable introduction to conventional disciplines - botany, phytochemistry, pharmacokinetics - relevant to CHM, and would be a useful text for students and practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine who need background in these areas with a herbal twist ... It will be a useful addition to the libraries of schools of pharmacy, chemistry, botany and other health- and plant-related disciplines' - Joanne Barnes, School of Pharmacy, University of London in Journal of Ethnopharmacology (99), July, 2005

Herbs are discrete botanical entities; their phytochemical constituents both characterise their botanical type and provide the medium for pharmacological effect. The ethos underpinning the whole book is that phytochemists, botanists, biomedical doctors and Chinese herbalists should be co-operatively exploring the interfaces between these allied disciplines and should therefore be broadly conversant with their principal theories and terminologies.

The book considers Chinese medicine to be medically useful. Although it acknowledges that herbs are pharmacologically active because of their phytochemical constituents, it does not argue for the subsuming of Chinese herbal medicine into biomedicine. Rather, it views both the Chinese medical (Yin/Yang, Qi/Blood, meridians, etc) and biomedical (electro-biochemical) models as having their own strengths, but believes there to be potential for collaborative benefit in respect both of acquiring medical benefits and avoiding iatrogenicity and abreactions.

Presently, much of the phytochemical, pharmacological and medical research undertaken on 'herbs' is carried out on the wrong species, or the wrong part of the right species, or on a herb prepared in a way not representative of Chinese herbal medicine. Additionally, much research is in vitro, and cannot necessarily be extrapolated to in vivo use. To complicate the situation further, herbalists are often botanically imprecise as to what they intend by a particular herb name. The consequence of botanical imprecision and lack of communication is that results of research are unhelpful or misleading; this is a wasted resource.

Was $195.00 NOW $30.00 300 x 210mm.

536pp

(For this item please quote stock ID 23053)

Related Subject Areas:

Chinese herbs