Healing with Plants in the American and Mexican West

Healing with Plants in the American and Mexican West
Author: Margarita Artschwager Kay
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 1996-07-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0816544670

Disenchanted with biomedicine and dismayed by its cost, increasing numbers of people are seeking alternative therapies such as the healing plants discussed in this book. Plant medicine is a billion-dollar business: health food stores, small yerberias, and even giant grocery store chains carry hundreds of medicinal herbs. By one estimate, up to one-third of the U.S. population uses alternative medicine—generally in addition to conventional therapy and commonly without telling their doctors. The heart of this volume is a complete description of 100 plants commonly used today, often for the same purposes reported by chroniclers of the Aztecs or eighteenth-century European explorers. Information for each plant includes botanical and common plant names, history, contemporary uses, a description of how the plant is prepared and administered, and brief phytochemical data. Discussions of folk efficacy and folk properties—beliefs in how and why the herb heals—help to explain the continued use of each plant into the present day. Are any of these plants dangerous, and do any of them really work? Where did they come from, and where are they available now? How can health-care practitioners gain the confidence of their patients to learn whether they are using alternative medicines for specific illnesses, symptoms, or injuries? Perhaps most intriguing, which of these plants might be waiting to take the place of known antibiotics as pathological organisms become increasingly resistant to modern miracle drugs? Answers to these and other questions will pique the interest of general readers and will be an invaluable resource for health-care providers—especially nurses and other primary-care providers, who often must find an interface between biomedical and more traditional therapies. For all readers, the book opens a window into many ethnic cultures of the region—Mexican American communities, desert Pima, coastal Seri, and others. Here is the fascinating saga of how their healing plants from prehistoric times melded with Old World herbs brought by the Europeans to create the unique pharmacopoeia available today here and in other parts of the world. Plants included: Acacia (Cassie, Acacia) Achillea (Yarrow) Agastache (Giant Hyssop) Agave (Century Plant) Allium (Garlic, Onion) Aloe (Aloe) Ambrosia (Ragweed) Anemopsis (Yerba Mansa) Arctostaphylos (Bearberry, Uva Ursi) Argemone (Prickly Poppy) Aristolochia (Bithwort, Snakeroot) Arracacia (Arracacha) Artemisia (Wormwood, Mugwort, Western Mugwort, Sagebrush) Asclepias (Milkweed) Baccharis (Desert Broom, Seep Willow) Bocconia (Tree Celandine) Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) Bursera (Elephant Tree) Caesalpinia (Mexican Bird-of-Paradise) Cannabis (Marijuana) Capsicum (Chili) Carnegiea (Saguaro) Casimiroa (Zapote) Cassia (Senna) Cereus (Cactus) Chenopodium (Goosefoot, Wormseed) Citrus (Lemon, Lime, Orange) Datura (Jimson Weed) Ephedra (Mormon Tea) Equisetum (Horsetail) Eryngium (Eryngo, Button Snakeroot) Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus) Euphorbia (Spurge) Eysenhardtia (Kidneywood) Gnaphalium (Everlasting, Cudweed) Guaiacum (Lignum Vitae) Guazuma (Guazuma) Gutierrezia (Turpentine Bush) Haematoxylon (Logwood) Haplopappus (Jimmyweed) Heterotheca (Telegraph Plant, Falso Arnica) Hintonia (Copalqu¡n) Ibervillea (Coyote Melon) Jacquinia (Jacquinia) Jatropha (Limberbush) Juniperus (Juniper) Karwinskia (Coffeeberry) Kohleria (Tree Gloxinia) Krameria (Ratany) Lantana (Lantana) Larrea (Creosote Bush, Greasewood) Ligusticum (Lovage) Lippia (Oregano) Lysiloma (Featherbush) Malva (Mallow) Mammillaria (Pincushion Cactus) Mascagnia (Mascagnia) Matricaria (Chamomile) Mentha (Mint) Nicotiana (Tobacco) Ocimum (Basil) Opuntia (Cholla, Prickly Pear) Perezia (Perezia) Persea (Avocado) Phaseolus (Bean) Phoradendron, Stru

Healing with Plants in the American and Mexican West

Healing with Plants in the American and Mexican West
Author: Margarita Artschwager Kay
Publisher:
Total Pages: 348
Release: 1996-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Are any of these plants dangerous, and do any of them really work? Where did they come from, and where are they available now? How can health-care practitioners gain the confidence of their patients to learn whether they are using alternative medicines for specific illnesses, symptoms, or injuries? Perhaps most intriguing, which of these plants might be waiting to take the place of known antibiotics as pathological organisms become increasingly resistant to modern miracle drugs?

Earth Medicines

Earth Medicines
Author: Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2021-11-23
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0834843862

Winner of the 2022 Eating the West Award! Winner of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Book Award! An accessible guide to time-honored Indigenous wisdom, healing recipes, and wellness rituals for modern life from an experienced curandera. In Earth Medicines, Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz, a curandera (or traditional healer) who is a Xicana with Tewa ancestry, combines Indigenous wisdom from many traditions with the power of the four elements. This modern guide is designed to support readers on their path to wellness with lifestyle practices and recipes perfected by Ruiz in her twenty-five years of training and working as a curandera. Ruiz teaches readers to be their own healers by discovering their own ancestral practices and cultivating a personal connection to the elements. These healing recipes and rituals draw on the power of Water, Air, Earth, and Fire—a reminder that the natural elements are the origins of everything and can heal not only our bodies, but the mind and spirit as well. In chapters organized by each element, readers will first find recipes and advice for: Promoting inner harmony through Hydrotherapy for Headache Relief, Mayan Tea to Calm the Mind, or Ginger Fire Honey Chews Nurturing beauty inside and out with Tepezcohuite Honey Mask, Salt of the Earth Deodorant, or Sweetwater Herbal Mouth Rinse Taking care of the spirit by creating an ancestral altar, making loose incense, or performing a Mayan Bajo Steaming Ritual

Healing with Plants

Healing with Plants
Author: Margarita Artschwager Kay
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 340
Release:
Genre:
ISBN: 9780186516465

Infusions of Healing

Infusions of Healing
Author: Joie Davidow
Publisher: Touchstone
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1999-10-05
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN:

This treasury of Mexican-American herbal medicine presents hundreds of safe, effective herbal treatments for everyday ailments--teas, liniments, compresses, salves, and soothing baths for headaches, colds, fevers, digestive problems, menstrual cramps, and aches and pains. In addition, more than 200 herbs are cataloged and cross-referenced. 10 line drawings.

They All Want Magic: Curanderas and Folk Healing

They All Want Magic: Curanderas and Folk Healing
Author: Elizabeth de la Portilla
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2009
Genre: Biculturalism
ISBN: 1603443738

"Curanderas"--traditional healers in Mexican culture--bridge the gaps between multiple planes of existence--spiritual and material, modern and pre-modern--dispensing medicinal herbs, prayers, and instruction. Elizabeth de la Portilla writes of the world and practices of San Antonio curanderas. As a scholar, an ethnographer, and a curandera in training, her parallel perspectives uniquely aid readers in understanding this subordinated culture. Retelling the stories various healers have shared, interpreting their answers to her probing questions, and describing the herbs and recipes they use in their arts, the author vividly illuminates the borderland context of San Antonio. Scholars and readers of anthropology, sociology, Chicana and Chicano studies, and women's studies will savor the many layers of meaning and application in "They All Want Magic."

Southwest Medicinal Plants

Southwest Medicinal Plants
Author: John Slattery
Publisher: Timber Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2020-02-04
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1604699116

Wildcraft your way to wellness! In Southwest Medicinal Plants, John Slattery is your trusted guide to finding, identifying, harvesting, and using 112 of the region’s most powerful wild plants. You’ll learn how to safely and ethically forage, and how to use wild plants in herbal medicines including teas, tinctures, and salves. Plant profiles include clear, color photographs, identification tips, medicinal uses and herbal preparations, and harvesting suggestions. Lists of what to forage for each season makes the guide useful year-round. Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers, naturalists, and herbalists in Arizona, southern California, southern Colorado, southern Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, western and central Texas, and southern Utah.

Western Herbs according to Traditional Chinese Medicine

Western Herbs according to Traditional Chinese Medicine
Author: Thomas Avery Garran
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 598
Release: 2008-01-22
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1594777411

The first book to exclusively use Chinese medical theories and terminology to guide practitioners of Chinese medicine in the use of Western herbs • Written entirely according to the theory, diagnosis, and treatment paradigm of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) • Explains how to combine and modify the standard TCM formulas to non-Chinese herbs suitable for Western practitioners • Includes 58 monographs of common Western healing herbs, detailing how each plant is used clinically The ever-growing number of Chinese medicine practitioners in the West has brought about an amalgamation of many styles of Chinese medicine and various other forms of medicine from around the world. This book addresses the increasing demand for knowledge of how to integrate plants from outside the standard Chinese materia medica into the fold of Chinese medical practices in the West. It is the first in-depth guide to using Western herbs exclusively according to the theories, diagnoses, and treatments of traditional Chinese medicine that harmonizes the unique terminology and theories of TCM with other botanical medicines. The book contains 58 monographs, illustrated with full-color photographs, of herbs commonly used by Western herbalists. Each herb is grouped by the basic categorization for medicinals in Chinese medicine, such as Herbs that Resolve the Exterior and Herbs that Regulate Blood. The monographs detail the energetics, function and indication, channels entered, dosage and preparation, and contraindications of each plant. The author also explains how to use the herbs to modify standard formulas used in everyday Chinese herbal medicine, based on his own clinical experience. An appendix of Western Analogs for Chinese Herbs further highlights 40 Chinese medicinals that have related species growing in the West.

Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest

Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest
Author: Charles W. Kane
Publisher:
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2006
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780977133307

Alternative Medicine Review, March, 2006 by Mario RoxasThis text covers over 210 western plants within 100 distinct plant profiles, from Acacia to Yucca. Each profile is identified by what the author calls its "main common name." This is followed by the plant's Latin family name, its current Latin binomial, and any other common names. The profile is further broken down into segments such as description, distribution, chemistry, medicinal uses, indications, collection, preparation and dosage, and cautions.Kane's writing style is simple and easy to follow. Drawing from over 15 years of experience in the field, he equips the reader with practical information that can be readily applied, while at the same time lending insights that can only come from someone with a true passion for, and intimate knowledge of, botanical medicines.Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest serves as a decent field guide as well. In addition to the text, the book contains 80 detailed paintings by Frank S. Rose and over 250 photos of the plants covered in the book, allowing for easy recognition on site.Although the name focuses on plants in the southwest, many may be found throughout North America. Such familiar names include dandelion, horsetail, juniper, and verbena. Thus, the medicinal plants in this book go well beyond the geographical borders of its title.For anyone interested in botanical medicine, Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest is a valuable addition to your library.