Looking for a First Herbal? Try This.
Written: Aug 23 '08 (Updated Aug 23 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: thorough look at using herbs in daily life both for medicine and for mundane purposes
Cons: includes many herbs you will probably never find and some that you should never ingest.
The Bottom Line: A wonderful first book on medicinal herbalism. You will find yourself referring to it over and over again.
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| jiastar's Full Review: John B. Lust - The Herb Book: The Complete and Aut... |
"The Herb Book" by John B Lust was my first medicinal herbal. It is over 600 pages long and it is jam packed full of information necessary to using herbs as part of your own healing practices.
The opening 75 pages include an all too brief (six pages) look at herbs in history and quickly moves into the plants themselves. Mr. Lust covers leaf structure, botanical terms, procurement of herbs, various forms of preparations, as well as an rich glossary of medicinal effects and the herbs that induce them.
The next 320 pages cover 514 medicinal herbs in quite a bit of depth. For each herb Mr. Lust provides:
- primary name
- botanical name (Latin name)
- common names
- medicinal part(s)
- physical description (including habitat)
- properties and usage
- preparation and dosage
Herbs covered include common spices, fruits, and plants as well as more obscure varieties. There are no blatant indicators for plants that can be poisonous other than that while the book will give the medicinal properties it will not provide information regarding preparation or dosage and instead advises readers that it is "too dangerous to be used without medical supervision." This section is also followed by indexes which allow you to look up an herb by it's primary or common name or by it's Latin name.
For example the passage on lavender suggests using the essential oil (in drop size doses) on sugar cubes, the section on dandelion suggests juicing the leaves and taking this (mixed with milk) as a "spring tonic", and the entry on carrot suggests carrot soup as a treatment for stomach and intestinal issues.
In my mind there are only two drawbacks to this section (other than the aforementioned lack of any blatant markings on potentially dangerous listings). The first is that the dosage information is a bit vague with no guidance on adjusting it based on age of "patient" or their body weight. The second is that the properties and usages of the plants by way of their medical terms as opposed to being in common language. Instead of saying a plant treats intestinal gas it is listed as carminative and instead of stating that a plant induces perspiration it is listed as diaphoretic. While these terms are defined in the opening pages of the book it can be a bit tedious, as a novice, to be constantly flipping pages to fully understand the content.
The rest of the book take a varied approach to the herbs and provides information relating to:
- herbal recipes for various ailments and conditions
- nutrition from plants
- suggested used for herbs and spices
- using herbs as tea or to make alcoholic beverages
- herbal beauty care
- making potpourri
- plant dyes
- astrological
- correspondences and folklore
Bear in mind that it gives only a passing glances worth of coverage relating to folklore and astrology and would probably be of little use to one who uses herbs solely for magical purposes. However, if you are looking for one book to use to start your own journey in medicinal herbalism this would make an excellent choice. The herbs you will find most easily at your local supermarket (mint, chamomile, hibiscus, etc) are included as are fruits, nuts and spices you probably already consume on a regular basis.
Also, please remember when reading this or any other book of medicinal herbal preparations that when you turn a plant into a medicine it becomes a drug. Herbs may be natural but used recklessly can do as much harm as pharmaceuticals. Be aware of the potential risk of allergy or interaction with other medications you are on.
* This book is available in mass-market paperback format from Amazon.com and other sellers.
Recommended:
Yes
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jiastar
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Location: Monmouth County, NJ
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