Handbook of northeastern Indian medicinal plants

Handbook of Northeastern Indian Medicinal Plants, James A. Duke, Quarterman Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 156, Lincoln, MA, 1986, pp. xvi + 212, illustrated with line drawings KJS$30.00). Here is another of Dr. James Duke’s extremely complete and useful books on medicinally valuable plants used in traditional medicine. It is beautifully produced by a small company that has in its first several years re-published two important books: the long unavailable Medicinal Uses of Plants by Indian Tribes of Nevada by Hendricks and Archer; and Plants Used against Cancer - a Survey by Hartwell. It is sometimes believed that plant explorers must go to far-away corners of the earth to look for plants of potential medicinal value employed in primitive societies. Partly for this reason, our north-temperate floras have often not been critically studied from the chemical and pharmacological points of view. Two of our relatively new and important drugs have come from the investigation of plants of the northwestern part of North America: the Veratrum alkaloids from V. virile; and podophylotoxin from Podophyllum peltattim both employed by local Indian tribes for their biological activity: the former in New York State, the latter in Maine. As Duke notes: “. . . Podophyllum peltatum was used by the Penobscot Indians for cancerous conditions. And it wasn’t long before podophyllin was the drug of choice for venereal warts. But an article in Science . . . hints that etoposide . . . from the May apple may have the answer to lung cancer . . . Ironically, the Indian gave us the tobacco and now perhaps the cure for lung cancer.” A total of 732 species and varieties are considered, an astonishingly high number from a flora of probably fewer than 2500 species. Most of the plants are illustrated with very clear and useful line drawings. A list of 41 references is appended. There is a g-page index of common, generic name equivalents followed by a most useful 29-page generic index to ailments. Since the plants are listed alphabetically under scientific names, an index of botanical binomials is superfluous. Both the author and the publisher have done ethnopharmacology a distinct favour in putting out this significant contribution. Richard Evans Schultes