The Pharmacology of Chinese Herbs, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Thorough...a bit pricy, but well worth the expense.
Review: As a Ph.D. student in biochemistry I have sought out critical references that would be accurate and legitimate treatises on the biochemistry and pharmacology of herbs. If one is truly interested in understanding the biochemistry and pharmacology of Chinese herbs, then this is the reference to purchase. Very intelligently presented in a concise scientific journal format, presenting critical and relevant studies on the herbs as they are currently understood with many references to the original research papers. I would certainly purchase other titles similar to this if their coverage of other herbs (e.g. South American, Ayurvedic) were as comprehensive, relevant, and credible as this one. Not for the herbologist interested in a hokey metaphysical distortion of truth. Ideal for the intelligent and/or educated layman that really wants to know what compounds are present in various Chinese herbs and what their activities are.

Pitfalls: Some listings are very brief (less than a page) For instance the discussion of Centella asiatica is only 1/2 page and listed under antipyretic herbs and makes no mention of nootropic effects if they, in fact, exist-Nobody's perfect.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money, Nothing you cannot find on pubmed.com
Review: I'm shipping this book back. It isn't worth the price tag given the info it provides. It is basically a regurjitation of pubmed.com research and abstracts. In fact with some of the entries I can almost read verbatim the abstract that it references. (In general I find CRC press books too pricey)

Rating:
Summary: Concise guide to the scientific base of major herbal drugs
Review: Very outstanding among the books on chinese herbs written in English (to be fair, many better books in Chinese exist but not well translated!)

Starting from the chemistry and ending with the toxicology, each important herbs included are presented in a well-balanced format; the therapeutic values are thus projected clearly on the empirical grounds.

The new edition is an updated gist of those related scientific works done but could not be tracked on the great MedLine due to the language barrier.