The Potent Plant Compendium: The Practitioner’s Guide to Prescribing Medicinally Powerful Herbs

A critical reference for using powerful and potentially poisonous plants in herbal practice Frances Hambley for the first time compiles the ultimate guide to using potent, powerful plants in herbal practice. Born from over thirty years of working with these plants, she brings precision and clarity to prescribing herbs that many herbalists are unsure about using.  The Potent Plant Compendium is a vital text that serves to record and preserve the knowledge of the medicinal usage of plants that have become increasingly threatened in modern herbal practice. Included within these pages is an exploration of often restricted herbs, as well as other potent plants, such as those containing pyrrolizidone alkaloids, and Piper Methysticum. Also explored are restricted herbs that herbalists are unable to prescribe, but have interesting and relevant pharmacological actions. The text is presented for ease of reference, in a clear A-Z of clinical monographs, each with a full colour photograph of the herb. Each monograph lists the parts used, constituents, dosage, actions, indications, combinations, cautions and contradictions, drug interactions, toxicity, conventional use, research, homeopathy, relatives, eclectics, and more. The book also explores the history, folklore, and traditional use of these plant.  As well as the medicinal qualities of these plants, The Potent Plant Compendium also outlines what the symptoms of toxicity by accidental ingestion or contact with a particular plant might be, and the antidote, management, and treatment required where known. Hambley also includes carefully selected case-studies, providing real-life examples of using these plants in herbal clinics.  The Potent Plant Compendium is a guide to the balance between the therapeutic medicinal dose, and a toxic one, of plants that are deemed to be poisonous. It is an invaluable and much-needed addition to the library of all students and practitioners of herbal medicine.