Handbook of African Medicinal Plants

With over 50,000 distinct species in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the African continent is endowed with an enormous wealth of plant resources. While more than 25 percent of known species have been used for several centuries in traditional African medicine for the prevention and treatment of diseases, Africa remains a minor player in the global natural products market largely due to lack of practical information. This updated and expanded second edition of the Handbook of African Medicinal Plants provides a comprehensive review of more than 2,000 species of plants employed in indigenous African medicine, with full-color photographs and references from over 1,100 publications. The first part of the book contains a catalog of the plants used as ingredients for the preparation of traditional remedies, including their medicinal uses and the parts of the plant used. This is followed by a pharmacognostical profile of 170 of the major herbs, with a brief description of the diagnostic features of the leaves, flowers, and fruits and monographs with botanical names, common names, synonyms, African names, habitat and distribution, ethnomedicinal uses, chemical constituents, and reported pharmacological activity. The second part of the book provides an introduction to African traditional medicine, outlining African cosmology and beliefs as they relate to healing and the use of herbs, health foods, and medicinal plants. This book presents scientific documentation of the correlation between the observed folk use and demonstrable biological activity, as well as the characterized constituents of the plants. Praise for the First Edition: "The book gives a good description of African medicinal plants and their use within the general African culture …. This is an interesting handbook for phytochemists, pharmacologists, anthropologists, or anyone who is interested in African medicinal plants…. A pioneer work on African medicinal plants…. Our congratulations go to the author and publishers for producing such an interesting book." —Nigist Asfaw and Sebsebe Demissew, The National Herbarium Science Faculty, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Economic Botany, Vol. 48, No. 1, 1994 "A vast topic, medicinal plants in the wide expanse of Africa, is well covered in this work. Primarily for medical library collections, but will interest anyone concerned with ethnobotany and African culture." —C.T. Mason, Jr., University of Arizona, as quoted in CHOICE, June 1994 CONTENTS Introduction Background Historical Perspective Current Topics Catalog of Major African Medicinal Plants (Alphabetical listing) Pharmacognostical Profile of Selected Medicinal Plants (Alphabetical listing) Healing and the African Culture Introduction Healing, a Gift of the Spirit The Restless Spirits Spirit Possession Symbols and Artifacts in African Ethnomedicine Incantations and the Magic Power of the Word Taboo and Totems The African Medicine Man Training of Traditional Healers Types of Traditional Healers Trephination or Craniotomy The Specialist Medicinal Plants and Traditional Healing Methods Diagnosis Malaria Arthritis and Inflammatory Disorders Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS Gastrointestinal Disorders Snakebites Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Diseases Convulsions and Epilepsy Helminthic Infestation Coughs Abortion Sterility Medicines Diabetes Skin Diseases and Cutaneous Infections Arrow and Ordeal Poisons Adaptogens Index of Species, Genera, and Families Subject Index   Maurice M. Iwu (M. Pharm., Ph.D. Bradford) was a professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a senior research associate at the Division of Experimental Therapeutics of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. He is the founder and chairman of the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP), the International Centre for Ethnomedicine and Drug Development (InterCEDD), and Intercedd Health Products. He is a member of the board of directors of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals (Formerly Pfizer Nigeria). He has been Visiting Scholar to the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, University of Oxford (1980), Fulbright Senior Scholar Award (Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio and the Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York(1983);Senior Research Scholar Award, U.S. National Research Council, Washington D.C.(1993 – 1995) and the Richard Schultes International Prize for Ethnobiology(1999). He was awarded the Doctor of Letters (Honoraris Causa) of the Imo State University (2009).