Contiene índice, lista de figuras y créditos.

Incluye 353 referencias bibliográficas

1. Medicinal Herbs: Toxicity Ranking and Pricelist. 2. oxins: Their Toxicity and Distribution in Plant Genera. 3. Higher Plant Genera and Their Toxins. 4. Pharmacologically Active Phytochemicals. 5. Proximate Analyses of Conventional Plant Foods.

Like one old Chinese herbal, this Handbook of Medicinal Herbs treats 365 folk medicinal species. There could be many more, but I am folksy enough to believe that an herb a day, like an apple, a beet, a carrot, a citrus and/or a cole slaw a day can help keep the doctor away, maybe even cancer.

The evolution of this title has been rather interesting in itself. The first draft was entitled Borderline Herbs and it was reviewed for years under that title. It contained most of the medicinal herbs whose salubrity was being challenged, borderline often implying that the herb industry was promoting while regulatory agencies were challenging the herb. As the list of borderline herbs grew to 365, a tempting, somewhat logical title seemed to be 'An Herb a Day... Borderline Herbs' or Herbs of Dubious Salubrity. Both these alternative titles seemed a bit demeaning for important medicinal species, worth well over $500 million (US) a year. Now, following strenuous recommendations of the publisher, the title rests at Handbook of Medicinal Herbs. Predicting criticism will not undo the urtication of the critic's barbs. Surely I will be criticized for having omitted some important medicinal species, on both the safe and on the dangerous side of borderline. All plants contain pharmacologically active compounds and vitamins, and I clearly can't treat all of them. I have striven to include those that have been batted about in public view, with both antagonists and protagonists. with the "borderline" herbs caught in the middle of the altercation between advocates and adversaries.