Medicinal Plants In Australia Bush Pharmacy

This book is designed to enhance the appreciation of the medicinal history of Australia's flora, its unique contributions to everyday life, and its extraordinary future potential. Author Cheryll Williams previously published a series of articles on medicinal plants in Australian Wellbeing magazine and is currently working with Wildlife Rescue in the tropical rainforest. Chapters include: Plants of the Pioneers: First Impressions and Improvisations * Herbal Inspiration: Remedies from the Bush * Sarsaparilla and Sassafras: Old Remedies in a New Colony * Xanthorrhoea: Grass-Tree Medicine * Floral Emissaries * Bush Beverages * Bush Tucker Bugs * A Sweet Surprise: Medicinal and Toxic Honeys * Uniquely Australian: Flowers, Flavors, and Fragrance * Sandalwood: The Aromatic Export * The Famous Australian Gum-tree.

It has taken centuries to truly appreciate the healing attributes of much of the Australian flora. This book tells about the influential role the early discoveries had on medicinal practice in Australia, and the role these traditional medicines are fulfilling.

Cheryll Williams' monumental four volume Medicinal Plantsin Australia is well known. BushRemedies is a readable and well-researched introduction to the huge varietyof native plants in Australia with medicinal properties. The Aboriginal people exploited thisdiversity and harvested the bounty of the land with ingenuity. The colonists found the strange flora almostincomprehensible. A long process ofexperimentation began. The astringent,antibacterial qualities of Eucalypt kino and the wattle trees were accepted.The fragrant oils of Eucalypts, Tea-trees, Native Myrtles and Mintbushes were utilised. The records of early pioneers, the European medical men andAboriginal experience have given us valuable bush remedies. This fusion ofancient tradition combined with the insights granted by modern science seesnative plants taking on a new role.

In this book the authors have recorded information on many of the medicinal plants that were regularly used by the Noongar people of the south-west of Western Australia. They hope it will ensure that the traditional knowledge is not lost forever with the passing of elders and traditional healers.

An invaluable resource for all those interested in herbal medicine, Aboriginal culture and Australian flora. Australia's varied flora provided Aborigines with their medicines for thousands of years. In this book hundreds of species are described and their uses as painkillers, antiseptics, etc are explained.

Before the colonisation of Australia, Aboriginal Australians lived on a wonderful larder of fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat, in a land largely free from disease, with more exercise, less stress and supportive communities. Today, in Aboriginal communities all over Australia, there are higher instances of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, some types of cancer and lung diseases than in the general population. This book is an attempt to preserve bush tucker knowledge for future generations of Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal people to ensure the information is not lost with the passing of Elders. The authors describe over 250 species of the edible plants and fungi that were regularly gathered by the Indigenous peoples of the Kimberley of Western Australia before and after colonisation. Many of these plants and fungi are difficult to find today because of land clearing for crops and the farming of sheep and cattle.