Plants in cardiology - Arthur Hollman

From earliest times mankind has depended on plants to treat disease. It was through folk medicine that plant remedies such as hyoscine, which are still of great value, were introduced. When diagnosis was primitive, treatment was chiefly the relief of symptoms by trial and error. But medical science has developed new medicines and new uses from the old folk remedies - amiodarone came from an Egyptian herb, verapamil from opium, and procainamide from an Inca stimulant. In the development of modern cardiological drugs chance observation, extensive chemical investigation, studies of diseases in animals, and patients' own findings have all played a part, and Arthur Hollman's account of these discoveries makes fascinating reading.;Dr Hollman is a cardiologist who is also a keen amateur botanist, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and a member of the Committee of Management of the Chelsea Physic Garden. He has woven medical and botanical information into many of his articles. Written primarily for cardiologists, his book will also be useful to anyone interested in nature's contribution to medicine, including doctors, pharmacists, botanists, herbalists, and medical historians. A glossary explains the most commonly occurring drug names and medical conditions for the non-technical reader. It has full page illustrations of plants reproduced from original sources such as Gerard's seventeenth century "Herball" and Bentley's and Trimen's nineteenth century "Medicinal Plants".