Tyler’s Herbs of Choice: The Therapeutic Use of Phytomedicinals 2nd edition

Both these books set out to show what is known about herb remedies as used in western herbal medicine. Herbs of Choice starts out by defining herbal medicines as drugs in an impure form, where in some cases the active ingredient has not been identified. The authors encourage the use of the pure extract or a synthetic substitute because the dose and effects are more predictable. For example, aspirin is better than an infusion of willow bark. The problems of variability in samples of herbs is described. Different strains of the same species can vary, and even from the same...