A Handbook Of West African Flowers

Handbook of African Medicinal Plants provides a comprehensive review of over 1,000 species of plants employed in indigenous African medicine. It gives a concise description of the materia medica of an enormous and extensively varied continent, with well over 2,000 distinct tribes and several distinct floras. A detailed pharmacognostical profile of the major herbs is presented, including the common name, synonyms, African names, habitat and distribution, medicinal uses, chemical constituents, and published pharmacologic activity. This extensive catalog of plants is presented both in alphabetic order and according to family. References are cited from over 600 publications, and photographs and sketches illustrate many of the plants. The book also provides an introduction to African cosmology and beliefs as they relate to healing and the use of herbs. Handbook of African Medicinal Plants is an invaluable, practical desk reference that should be on the bookshelf of every pharmacognosist, ethnobiologist, botanist, ecologist, phytochemist, pharmacologist, and scientist interested in tropical plant utilization as a tool for the conservation of biodiversity and as a source of new drug leads.

With over 50,000 distinct species in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the African continent is endowed with an enormous wealth of plant resources. While more than 25 percent of known species have been used for several centuries in traditional African medicine for the prevention and treatment of diseases, Africa remains a minor player in the global natural

This photographic guide to the wild flowers of Gambia is intended to be of use as a resource for those interested in the natural history of the country. It provides information on the geography, geology, climate, botanical exploration and vegetation types of Gambia, and contains colour photographs which cover a range of native and naturalized plants, with an emphasis on herbaceous species. The text is designed to be easy to understand, highlighting useful characteristics for identification, such as the general appearance of the plant, leaf shape, flower structure, flowering period and type of fruit produced. Information on typical habitat distribution and ethnobotany are also provided, and English and local names are listed.;The use of botanical terminology has been minimized, although not at the expense of accuracy, and a glossary is included.