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BOTY 4000: Medicinal Plants and Herbs

This is a class guide for BOTY 4000. Instructor: Ryan Stanfield

Books on Medicinal Plant History

An Aztec Herbal

Aztec Herbal

"I love that this book is the real deal. A truly unique and informative read." -- Texas Kitchen and Garden and More Originally written in the Aztec language, Nahuatl, in 1552, this classic codex was the first herbal and medical text compiled in the New World. The author of this extraordinarily rare and valuable document was Martín de la Cruz, an Aztec physician, whose work was subsequently translated into Latin by an Aztec nobleman, Juan Badiano. The book was translated into English in 1939 by William Gates. In these pages are centuries-old Aztec remedies for boils, hair loss, cataracts, insomnia, sore throats, hiccups, gout, lesions, wounds, joint diseases, tumors, and scores of other ailments. Over 180 black-and-white figures of the plants augment the text, along with 38 full color illustrations made specially for the Gates edition. Additional supplements include an introduction to the Mexican botanical system, an analytical index of the plants, and a new Introduction by anthropologist Bruce Byland of the City University of New York. Remarkable for its scope, detail, careful observation, and accurate description, An Aztec Herbal stands as a magnificent example of the impressive medical knowledge of indigenous peoples. This handsome and inexpensive edition of a long-unavailable work promises to engender a new appreciation of the skill and inventiveness of Aztec medical practices in particular and of Native American science in general.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Braiding Sweetgrass

An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes she circles toward a central argument: the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults

Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things--from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen--provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.

The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus

The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus

`A full edition of two important texts for the medical lore of Anglo-Saxon England.'The Medieval World

Early Modern Ireland and the World of Medicine

Early Modern Ireland and the World of Medicine

This collection of essays offers important new insights across a range of topics relating to medicine in early modern Ireland. Of particular note is the substantial attention devoted to the often neglected period before 1750. Among the key subjects addressed by the contributors are Gaelic medicine, warfare, the impact of new medical ideas, migration, patterns of disease, midwifery and childbirth, book collecting, natural history, and urban medicine. The twelve essays effectively situate Irish medicine in relation to long-term social and cultural change on the island, as well as to appropriate international contexts; British, European and Atlantic. Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine brings together a selection of established scholars as well as early career historians. It will be of interest to academics and students of the history of early modern medicine. It also contains much that will be essential reading for historians of Ireland.

The Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi

The Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi

The Medical Formulary of Al-­Samarqandi demonstrates the high development of pharmacology by the Arabs in the Middle Ages.

History of Herbalism - Wikipedia

Books