Handbook of Medicinal Herbs - Internet Archive

1 MedicinalHerbsHANDBOOK OFSECOND EDITION 1284_frame_FM Page 2 Thursday, May 23, 2002 10:53 AMCRC PRESSBoca Raton London New York Washington, A. DukewithMary Jo Bogenschutz-GodwinJudi duCellierPeggy-Ann K. DukeHANDBOOK OFSECOND EDITION Peggy-Ann K. Duke has the copyright to all black and white line and color author would like to express thanks to Nature s Herbs for the color slides presented in the book. This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted withpermission, and sources are indicated.

2 A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publishreliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materialsor for the consequences of their this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without priorpermission in writing from the consent of crc press LLC does not extend to copying for general distribution, for promotion.

3 For creating new works,or for resale. Specific permission must be obtained in writing from crc press LLC for such all inquiries to crc press LLC, 2000 Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only foridentification and explanation, without intent to infringe. Visit the crc press Web site at 2002 by crc press LLC No claim to original Government worksInternational Standard Book Number 0-8493-1284-1 Library of Congress Card Number 2002017548 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Duke, James A.

4 , 1929- Handbook of Medicinal Herbs / James A. Duke, with Mary Jo Bogenschutz-Godwin,Judi duCellier, Peggy-Ann K. 2nd published: CRC Handbook of Medicinal bibliographical references and 0-8493-1284-1 (alk. paper)1. Medicinal plants. 2. Herbs . 3. Herbals. 4. Traditional medicine. 5. Material medica,Vegetable. I. Duke, James A., 1929- CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs . II. Title.[DNLM: 1. Medicine, Herbal. 2. Plants, Medicinal .] D83 2002615 .321--dc212002017548 Introduction By the time this second edition is published, the first edition of the Handbook of Medicinal Herbs will have been out more than 15 years.

5 The second edition is designed to present most of the oldinformation plus new information on the more important of those original 365 Herbs . I submittedthe first edition under the original unpublished title, Herbs of Dubious Salubrity. I intentionally leftout many of the completely safe culinary Herbs , spices, and food plants that are clearly also intentionally omitted some strictly dangerous Herbs , such as foxglove, that were too unhealthyfor use in unskilled hands. I did include several obscure hallucinogenic plants of dubious did, or should have, dropped some of these because they have little Medicinal importance.

6 Somepoorly documented species, such as Mimosa hostilis and Phoradendron leucarpum , for example,were retained with fragmentary entries, so as to at least mention species from the first edition thatmight better have been I think I have the most important Herbs well covered here. In edition two, which I willrefer to frequently as my Herbal Desk Reference (HDR), I have tried to concisely corral the dataon some 1000 Herbs in as little space as possible, striving to make a reliable, referenced resourceto parallel the PDR for Herbal Medicines.

7 I use the three-letter abbreviation, HDR, to indicate thesecond edition of my Handbook of Medicinal Herbs , because I compare and contrast it to otherimportant sources, which are also represented by three-letter abbreviations. (See the referenceabbreviation appendix.)With this edition, I have tried to cover most of the widely mentioned Medicinal plants, whetherthey are extremely salubrious or extremely toxic. Without counting them, I estimate we includemore than 1000 of the most important Herbs , including the more important Herbs from the youngNative American and the European traditions (including most of those approved by CommissionE (KOM), and almost all of those included in the PDR for Herbal Medicine (PHR for the firstedition, and PH2 for the second edition).)

8 Unlike Commission E and the Herbal PDR, which seemto stress European and American traditions, I include proportionately more Herbs from the olderAfrican, Ayurvedic, and Chinese traditions as well, not wanting to slight any major Medicinal plantfrom any major me explain the new format for the second edition. First, a common name appears, usuallybut not always in English, followed by a recently accepted scientific name, with the authority forthe scientific name. Then follows a safety score, X, +, ++, or +++. An X means I don t recommendtaking it at all, or realize that it is so dangerous that it should not be taken without expert for litigious reasons, I give some potent Medicinal Herbs the X (amateurs beware!)

9 A singleplus (+) indicates that I do not consider that the herb is, overall, as safe as coffee. I score twopluses (++) for those Herbs I think of, overall, as being as safe as coffee. I score three pluses (+++)for those Herbs I believe to be safer than coffee. In the first edition, I related the plus sign to a cupof coffee, figuring that 1, 2, or 3 cups per day of an herbal tea from the herb would be as safe as1, 2, or 3 cups per day of coffee. I often drink more than 3 cups of coffee a day, especially whileI worked on this project! Clearly, this is an oversimplification.

10 Too often, some parts of a plant aremore helpful or more toxic than other parts of the same species, and different ethnic groups orcultures may use parts differently. The safety scoring is a continuation of the same scoring systemI used in the first edition. Some scores have been upgraded a bit, some have been , there are some comments on synonymy and other nomenclature difficulties that arosein completing this opus. I inject these following the nomenclature line. Here you may find someproven and/or suspected synonyms, or notes of related species that may be included in this species concept, especially by nontaxonomically trained authors.