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Kava is an herb that has been used for ceremonial, ritual, religious, social, political, and medicinal purposes for centuries. In the past few decades, kava has been widely marketed as an over-the-counter treatment for anxiety, stress, restlessness, and sleep disorders. Kava: From Ethnology to Pharmacology describes the history, botanical origins, production, economic aspects, and chemical and biological properties of this medicinal herb. A major part of the book focuses on the chemical and pharmacological properties of kavalactones, the psychoactive constituents of kava that reportedly have sedative, anxiolytic, analgesic, local anesthetic, anticonvulsant, and neuroprotective properties. Cl...
Essays on the use of alcoholic beverages within diverse societies and cultures
• The most comprehensive book ever written on nature's most effective stress-relieving plant. • First paperback edition of the classic comprehensive text originally published by Yale University Press. This complete guide to kava summarizes the literature and research on a plant that is now considered comparable or superior to anti-stress prescription drugs, and describes its use in the religious, political, and economic life of the Pacific islands for centuries. Beyond its soporific qualities kava is also used throughout the the Pacific as an analgesic, a diuretic, and an anesthetic. There is even evidence suggesting it is effective in the treatment of asthma, tuberculosis, and venereal disease. Exhaustively researched, Kava: The Pacific Elixir offers an extensive survey of this amazing plant from the perspective of the horticulturist, the ethnobotanist, and the pharmacologist.
The book provides science-based information about herbal remedies, other dietary supplements, and non-mainstream products promoted as cancer treatments for the medical community. Each herb or remedy description is accompanied by information as to its origin, most common uses, benefits, and risks/dangers. The book will provide detailed information on over 250 remedies and describes their constituents, mechanisms of action, adverse reactions, pharmacokinetics, and contraindications. Information on each herb or other remedy was developed through careful and critical reviews of research conducted by experts in pharmacy, botanicals, and complementary therapies. Each herb or product is described in terms of the following sections: common name, scientific name, key words, clinical summary, herbal constituents, warnings, mechanisms of action, usage, adverse reactions, drug interactions, dosage, literature summary and critique, and notes. This book has the look and feel of a fine field guide to medicinal plants, thanks to the beautiful drawings by Angela Donato, and it will be of interest to a wide audience beyond the medical specialists, including cancer patients.
A practice-oriented introduction to phytotherapy. Methodically classified by organic systems and fields of application, it offers a quick insight into dosage, form of application and effects of the most important herbal remedies. Only those herbal remedies that are of pharmacological and clinical efficiency have been considered. The authors are highly experienced in the field of postgraduate medical education and, with this work, present an indispensable reference book for the medical practice.
Today, most indigenous Fijians are Christians, and the Methodist Church is the foundation of their social and political lives. Yet, as this thought-provoking study of life on rural Kadavu Island finds, Fijians also believe that their ancestors possessed an inherent strength that is lacking in the present day. Looking in particular at the interaction between the church and the traditional chiefly system, Matt Tomlinson finds that this belief about the superiority of the past provokes great anxiety, and that Fijians seek ways of recovering this strength through ritual and political action—Christianity itself simultaneously generates a sense of loss and the means of recuperation. To unravel the cultural dynamics of Christianity in Fiji, Tomlinson explores how this loss is expressed through everyday language and practices.
Publisher's description: In a trial in California, Navajo defendants argue that using the hallucinogen peyote to achieve spiritual exaltation is protected by the Constitution's free exercise of religion clause, trumping the states' right to regulate them. An Ibo man from Nigeria sues Pan American World Airways for transporting his mother's corpse in a cloth sack. Her arrival for the funeral face down in a burlap bag signifies death by suicide according to the customs of her Ibo kin, and brings great shame to the son. In Los Angeles, two Cambodian men are prosecuted for attempting to eat a four month-old puppy. The immigrants' lawyers argue that the men were following their own "national cust...
"This book summarizes the adverse effects of a large range of herbal medicines and the active ingredients that they contain. It includes extensive lists of the families of plants that are used as herbal medicines, including the Latin names of genera and species as well as the common names of individual plants. The material is drawn from the 15th edition of the internationally renowned encyclopedia, Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs: The Encyclopedia of Adverse Drug Reactions and Interactions, and the latest volumes in the companion series, Side Effects of Drugs Annuals."--BOOK JACKET.
Health foods and dietary supplements are widely used throughout the world - it is estimated that more than seventy million people in Europe regularly buy these products, and it is a billion dollar business in the USA. Health foods include vitamins, minerals, cereals, nuts, herbal medicines, functional foods, and many others. A large number of people use these foods in the belief that they contribute to their general health, while, in most countries, little or no information is given on products explaining their therapeutic values. The Oxford Book of Health Foods begins with an account of modern concepts of human nutrition, followed by a series of over one hundred accounts of individual healt...