Suche books:   



Witch-Doctor's Apprentice: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon (Library of the Mystic Arts)
Nicole Maxwell

Citadel, 1998 - 412 pages

average customer review:based on 10 reviews
view larger image
 for more information click here

   highly recommended  highly recommended



Remarkable woman, ethnobotanical classic

Nicole Maxwell was an amazing woman who devoted much of her life to collecting and studying jungle plants for medicinal purposes. I read the first edition twenty years ago before leaving for the same location she had been to in the late 1950's of the Peruvian Amazon. This third edition is also first class.
After putting up with remote jungle river travel, wading through swamps knee deep, fighting off persistent insects, confronting the hot, humid climate and accommodations of isolated tropical living, plus other dangers and hazards of the rainforest too numerous to mention, she was snubbed by major pharmaceutical companies for the plant cures she discovered from local natives.
She had found plants that cured arthritis, eye diseases, diabetes, forms of cancer and plants that enhanced healing. Along with plants used as contraceptives, she also located ones which increased fertility and some that assisted in childbirth. Plants for infections, intestinal parasites, tooth and gum disorders, etc. are a few more to mention. The list goes on.
An extraordinary woman whose sole purpose in life was to benefit the well-being of humanity but unfortunately had it fall upon deaf ears.


 for more information click here


Witch-Doctor's Apprentice : Hunting for Medicinal Plants in

This was a great read for me back in '94 when it was presented as a gift and I have often recommended it. Nicole shares her life story when she is in her 80s. One needs to keep in mind the prevalence of ethnocentricity of our society back in the 50's and 60's. And to her credit she tells the WHOLE story, including all her fumbling bumblings of an imperfect human. As one who has ventured a little into the Bolivian and Belizian jungle her misadventures are only to be expected and provide great humor and reading. An example of her humor is while she is deep in the amazon jungle she relates that she wasn't all that concerned because what self respecting warrior would want a meazly female head for a trophy. Nicole was way ahead of her time in two areas: collecting ethnobotanical information and plants, and fighting multinational corporations in the pharmaceutical industry by bringing information directly to the people. I wonder if anyone has ever discovered what that one plant was that given one tbsp a woman was sterile until given a tbsp of another plant and she was fertile again! One may only be able to realize what an adventuresome and hardy soul she is, if you have taken steps into the amazon jungle yourself.


 for more information click here









 for more information click here


The essence of the Amazon is "captured" in words.

An excellent book on the amazing Amazon jungle written by atrue "worldly treasure," Nicole Maxwell. END


reviews: page 1, 2



When Nicole Maxwell first visited the Amazon more than forty years ago, she had no idea that she would make a life's work of the people, plants and lore to be found there. Decades before Americans became aware of the riches to be found in the knowledge of plant medicines which native shamans had passed down over thousands of years, Ms. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon ram forest for clues to this ancient medical tradition.

Now, on the eve of the decade in which mankind will have its last chance to determine the fate of this region and its wealth of traditional knowledge, Citadel Press's Library of the Mystic Arts is proud to bring out a newly revised edition of this classic work. Long hailed as one of the major works of popular ethno-medicine, this book is both an engaging adventure story and an engrossing account of the traditions of plant medicine to be found among the tribes of Amazonia -- and its re-release could not be more timely.

Scientists now fear that one plant species per day is being made extinct by man's ravenous appetite for "progress". Of the plants which are found only in the Amazon rain forest, only a tiny percentage have been tested for their full medical possibilities. Witch-Doctor's Apprentice is an inspiring and amusing plea to modern civilization to save these plants -- and the people who know how to use them -- before they are destroyed forever.

On the occasion of this newly revised edition, Ms. Maxwell has created an appendix which catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a newintroduction by the noted ethno-botanist Terence McKenna.

"A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts and dangers, the beauty of the jungle and the arc-leap of wordless communication across cultural barriers, as it is about... bringing natu


 for more information click here



hot or not?    What's your opinion?     Write a review and share your thoughts!



recommendations

Escape Reading for People Who Love Herbal Medicine
Some of my favorites




witch-doctor

Witch-Doctors
The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus
The Witch Doctor (Wizard in Rhyme)
Witch-Doctor's Apprentice: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon ...
The Witch Doctor's Dance



apprentice

Ranger's Apprentice: The Sorcerer of the North (Ranger's Apprentice)
Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia (Ranger's Apprentice, ...
Septimus Heap, Book Three: Physik (Septimus Heap)
The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye (The Last Apprentice)
The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread



medicinal

The Practice of Medicinal Chemistry, Third Edition
Medicinal Plants Coloring Book
Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rockies
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and ...



search for books
hunting for, amazon, apprentice, hunting, library, medicinal, mystic, witch-doctor


Impressum / about us


Suche books: