Clinical Botanical Medicine

This book is based on a series of previously published journal articles. It reviews the evidence for herbal treatments for 18 specific indications and also holds about 10 chapters on specific herbal preparations. I have to admit that I found the authors’ approach not as systematic as one would hope it to be, and often quite unclear. Any clinician looking for practical advice on how to use plants to treat patients would, I think, have a difficult time when using this book. On several occasions I found the opinion of the authors simplistic, misleading or even dangerous. For instance, they try to convince the reader that a history of hundreds of years of usage proves the safety of a herbal medicine (p 345). I must say, I find this a little worrying. My advice to FACT readers is therefore to choose one of the many evidence-based books on herbal medicine that have recently become available.