The most current scientific information from the world's leading medical journals.

Although there is growing consumer awareness of alternative and complementary medicine, there is a lack of comprehensive information available on herbal products. While pharmacists, physicians and other health care professionals sometimes offer advice, their patients want more information.

The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to the 50 Most Common Medicinal Herbs is a comprehensive, fully-illustrated reference to the 50 most commonly prescribed herbs.

A complete description of each herb is featured along with its other common names, possible adverse effects, therapeutic uses for treating illness and disease as well as potential drug interactions.

Some of the herbs included are:

• Aloe Vera
• Evening Primrose
• Goldenseal
• Scullcap
• Burdock
• Tumeric
• Tea Tree Oil
• Meadowsweet

This guide is written by professional pharmacists, one a naturopathic doctor, using the most current research and clinical testing.

The authors' easy-to-understand text, combined with the latest findings and clear directions for safe dosages, makes this practical reference on medicinal herbs a primary resource of data.

Dr. Heather Boon, BScPhm, PhD and Michael Smith, BPharm, MRPharmS, ND

Heather Boon's profile page

Food Network star Chef Michael Smith has been cooking professionally for over twenty years. An honours graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York, Chef Michael's contagious love of food has earned him friends and admirers worldwide. His early career was spent in restaurants from London to South America, but in 1992 Chef Michael returned to Canada and joined the kitchen at Prince Edward Island's The Inn at Bay Fortune. Soon Chef Michael's focus on regional cooking and local ingredients had earned the restaurant a reputation as one of the top places to eat in Canada. Six years later, Chef Michael invited television cameras into the inn's country kitchen for his first hit television show, The Inn Chef, which premiered on the Life Network. Its popularity helped to launch Food Network Canada. After opening his own restaurant in Halifax, Chef Michael returned to Food Network Canada in 2001 in the show Chef at Large. It was followed by Chef at Home in 2004, which gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Chef Michael's home kitchen and the way he cooks for family and friends. This show became wildly popular almost immediately and still remains the highest rated Canadian show on Food Network Canada. Chef Michael is the author of three previous Whitecap cookbooks. Open Kitchen: A Chef's Day at The Inn At Bay Fortune, published in 1998, won the bronze medal at Cuisine Canada's Cookbook Award. Chef Michael followed its success with The Inn Chef and Chef at Home: Cooking with and Without a Recipe,which has sold over 30,000 copies.

Michael Smith's profile page

Finally I have found a book on herbal medicine that I can recommend wholeheartedly... one of the best books on the subject to date. The evidence summarized here is objective rather than promotional, and key statements are fully referenced rather than opinion based.

Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies

The text is well written and will be easily understood by the lay reader as well as the health professional. It would be a good addition to the reference shelf of any library needing to provide information on medicinal herbs.

American Reference Books Annual, Volume 36

Pharmacists team up to define not only what the most common medicinal herbs are but also what they are not.

Science News

Considering the growing number of people who are using alternative medicine as an answer to the difficulty in obtaining health care, this easy to read, well-organized book is a blessing for the patient or practitioner trying to understand the appropriate use of common medicinal herbs... this great book supplies useful information about fifty of the most common medicinal herbs... should be on every practicing physician's desk.

Journal of the Natural Medicine Association

A layman's guide to using herbs safely.

Appleton Post-Crescent

A compilation of well-written and easily understandable reviews of herbal medicines... highly recommended for public and academic libraries.

E-Streams