An Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Plants of East Africa, by Najma Dharani and Abiy Yenesew
An Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Plants of East Africa by Najma Dharani and Abiy Yenesew, introduces to 136 plant species in everyday use in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The medicinal virtues of plants
The use of plants and plant derivatives for preventing and treating human diseases and afflictions is as old as civilisation itself. History shows that every culture on Earth has benefitted from the medicinal virtues of plants. Indeed, plants are still the backbone of most medical and health care systems around the world. Western medicine depends on plants for the active compounds in many of today's most successful and widely used drugs. Where natural products and their derivatives provide the basis for more than half of all the drugs now in clinical use globally, higher plants contribute no less than 25 per cent of the active ingredients. There is, in addition, a thriving global health care market extending to many hundreds of plant-based formulations, which are sold as health foods, herbal teas and nutritional and health supplements. Estimates put the number of plant taxa in everyday medicinal use around the world at anywhere between 50,000 and 75,000. Yet, despite the ever-growing number of plant-based drugs, fewer than 20 per cent of Earth's plant species have hitherto been examined for potential healing properties. Well in excess of 200,000 plant species are still awaiting scientific investigation. Modern science has validated many of the healing attributes for which individual plant species have long been used traditionally. A recent example is the endorsement of antimalarial drugs based on artemisinin, a compound first isolated in 1965 from the Chinese herb Artemisia annua, commonly known as sweet wormwood - a plant that traditional healers in China and elsewhere have long been prescribing as a cure for malaria. In trials carried out during a malaria epidemic in Vietnam in the early 1990s, Chinese military researchers found that artemisinin-based drugs reduced the death rate from malaria by no less than 97 per cent. Global health authorities, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have since embraced the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) drugs in the fight against Plasmodium falciparum malaria around the world. The transition of artemisinin from traditional to mainstream medicine follows that of other plant derivatives, including quinine, morphine, aspirin, codeine and reserpine, most of which are household names. More recently, development of the drug vincristine from Madagascar periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, has given scientists new hope in the battle to find effective treatments for cancer. The bark of red stinkwood, Prunus africana, has since the early 1970s been used in the formulation of no fewer than 19 different commercial drugs - all in common use today in both North America and Europe for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). [...]
Najma Dharani, plant and environmental ecologist, is a Senior Lecturer in Plant Sciences at Kenyatta University and a Consultant Research Scientist at the World Agrofestry Centre (ICRAF), both of which are in Nairobi, Kenya. She is passionate about natural resource management and conservation, ethnobotany, and reforestation and agroforestry in East Africa. Najma is the author and photographer of a range of titles including Field Guide to Common Trees and Shrubs of East Africa and Field Guide to Acacias of East Africa.
Abiy Yenesew, currently Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, has dedicated most of his career to investigating the phytochemistry and biological activities of the medicinal plants of East Africa. He has also served as a Programme Officer and later as Assistant Secretary for the Natural Products Research Network for Eastern and Central Africa (NAPRECA). Abiy lectures in Organic Chemistry, and has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles.
This is an excerpt from An Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Plants of East Africa, by Najma Dharani and Abiy Yenesew.
Title: An Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Plants of East Africa
Authors: Najma Dharani; Abiy Yenesew
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
Cape Town, South Africa 2022
ISBN 9781775847878 / ISBN 978-1-77-584787-8
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 312 pages, throughout colour photos
Dharani, Najma und Yenesew, Abiy im Namibiana-Buchangebot
An Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Plants of East Africa
An Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Plants of East Africa describes 136 plant species used in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Trees & Shrubs of East Africa
This is the fully revised third edition (2019) of the field guide to common trees & shrubs of East Africa.
Field guide to common trees and shrubs of East Africa
This is the 2nd (older) edition of Field guide to common trees and shrubs of East Africa. It is here sold at a reduced price.
Field Guide to Acacias of East Africa
This unique field guide to Acacias of East Africa introduces all 62 of the Acacia tree species occurring in the East African region.