Chewa Medical Botany

Although it rarely receives the attention it deserves from anthropologists, medical herbalism is perhaps the most widespread and most ancient form of therapy. This book describes in detail one such herbalist tradition, that found in southern Malawi. Offering the first comprehensive examination of medical herbalism in Malawi, this study combines anthropological and botanical insights into medical herbalism. The book is divided into two parts: the first outlines the ethnographic context of the herbalist tradition with discussion of Chewa ethnobotany and the local classification of plants; the various categories of medicine that are expressed in the local culture; the nature and scope of folk herbalism, its practitioners and its relation to biomedicine; local conceptions of disease; and beliefs relating to witchcraft and divination. The second part, which incorporates the researches of a Malawian chemist, Dr Jerome Msonthi, contains detailed information on over 500 Malawian plants with notes on their local names, distribution, botanical descriptions and various medicinal uses.

Organized by body system and ailment makes it easy to locate appropriate therapies. Includes background on the physiology of major systems and ailments so readers can understand how and why a pharmaceutical, botanical, or dietary supplement works. Broad coverage includes green plants, fungi, and microorganisms. Includes extensive references and citations from both conventional and complimentary-alternative medical systems when natural products or their derivatives are involved.

The three volumes of Bigelow's book each originally appeared in two fascicules, making a total of six fascicules in all. Because sets of hand-colored engravings had already been prepared for Vol. I, fascicule 1, Bigelow used them to complete the earliest copies of that part in order to meet his publication deadlines, adding the color prints as soon as the stone-printing process was perfected. Wolfe declares that "there are two states of the first number in American medical botany, one having hand-colored plates and the other having color printed plates." In addition there are some copies which have a combination of hand-colored and color-printed plates in volume 1, fascicule 1.--J. Norman, 2006.