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Review by Pat Regel
A medicine cabinet in your herb garden?
Many people are now finding out what herb gardeners have known for centuries: Herbs provide safe, natural remedies for physical ills.
This fall, when you harvest your herbs before the first frost, set aside additional bunches for drying and making medicinal herbal preparations for the winter. Then, drop by your favorite bookstore and pick up James A. Duke's "The Green Pharmacy." This is one of the best gardening books this reviewer has read this summer.
". . . I've personally seen medicinal herbs successfully treat conditions that high-tech pharmaceuticals could not touch," says Duke as he explains the natural remedies that can replace or enhance costly pharmaceuticals. In the 481 pages of this readable, authoritative guide, Duke presents every medicinal plant and herb used in traditional folk remedies as well as up-to-date information.
Many herb practitioners and herb gardeners have been waiting for a compilation such as this for years, and compilation it surely is. The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 gives information in preparing and using herbal remedies. Part 2 rates herbs and herbal remedies for every ailment from aging and allergies to wrinkles and yeast infections.
In clarifying his credentials, Duke says that he is technically an ethnobotanist, ". . . which simply means that I've studied how plants are used as food and medicine in many different cultures." But, with a Ph.D. in botany, postdoctoral work and extensive fieldwork to his credit, to say nothing of his 30-year career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Duke appears to be the foremost authority on medicinal plants and herbs.
Now, those of you who are health conscious individuals and spend big bucks swallowing expensive antioxidants can save money and get the same effect by drinking an antioxidant herbal tea made from oregano, rosemary, beebalm, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, sage, savory or thyme. As Duke explains, "Our challenge is to transcend the assumptions that are made by doctors, the advertising and promotion of the drug companies and the narrow and restrictive drug approval process used by the U.S. government. Our challenge is to think green -- not the mercenary, monetary green of the pharmaceutical firms . . ."
Pat Regel writes and grows her own medicinal herbs in her Nashville garden.
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