Since time immemorial, plants have been a rich source for therapeutics. Ayurveda is a living tradition of a health science of India, used for millennia. Ayurveda has a vast medicinal treasure-trove of herbs to choose remedies from.
The book Indian Medicinal Plants : Forgotten Healers written by Dr. Prakash Paranjpe is a comprehensive treatise on the subject. There was an acute need of a conscious effort to bridge the gap between Ayurvedic philosophy and Allopathic postulates and parameters and develop an integrated, holistic approach to therapeutics. This book fulfills the same.
For the first time, here is a detailed explanation of 135 herbs in complete Ayurvedic perspective, aided with their botanical description, phytochemistry, formulations and clinical usage, both topical as well as internal. The author has done a commendable job to compile the useful information of each plant, in addition, with excellent coloured photograph, which facilitates its identification.
The plants selected in the present book are fairly widely used in India for centuries. There is a worldwide revival of interest in natural products as preventive and therapeutic agents. The present book will help in generating a global interest in Ayurveda and medicinal plants in India. This compilation of most commonly used medicinal plants will be of use to Ayurvedic practitioners, students and researchers as well as to medical and scientific communities like pharmacy, botany, biochemistry, microbiology, etc. and also to the common man.
Besides the information on individual herbs, the beginning chapters on Principles of Ayurvedic Medicine, Ayurvedic Materia Medica and Ayurvedic Pharmacy, make the book more complete. With beautiful photographs of plants, charts, indices, detailed glossaries and bibliography are also included, Forgotten Healers is truly an unique addition to the literature of Ayurveda, especially, of Indian Medicinal Plants. |
