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Book Review
" 270 Plantas medicinales Ibero-arnericanas"
edited by Mahabir Gupta,
Convemio Andres Bello 1995
This book can be ordered from professor Mahabir Gupta ,
tclefax: .. - 507 -223- 7633 or 507-264-0789. Price: 45 dol-
lar + freight (postage)
The renewed study of medicinal plants from a certain re-
gion generally results in publ ication of reference and review
books. A good example is the Chinese materia medica,
where a number of reviews including updated references on
chemistry (in some cases also with structural formulas) and
pharmacology have been published.
For those researchers, including the author of this review,
who have been working med medicinal plants from the ibe-
to-american region, a reference book has been missing for
decades.
Now this drawback has been partl y abolished by the new
book dealt with here.
The book has been a project of the development pro-
gram: Programa Ibero-americano de Ciencia y Tecnologia
para Desarrollo, CITED, sub-programma de Quimica Fi-
na Farmaceutica.
The coordinator for this big project has been Mahabir
Gupta, professor of pharmacognosy, University of Panama.
The selection of the medicinal plants to be dealt with was
performed in such a way that one wellknown researcher
from each Ibero-american country and Portugal and Spain
should provide a list of 20 medicinal plants, which were
con sidered most important for his country. The following
three criteria were used by the selection:
a) The plant is native to Ibero-america,
b) The plant should not be extensively cultivated,
c) Plant species, which are less known from the view
point of its medical potentialities.
Using these criteria 270 species from 19 Ibero-american
countries incl. Portugal and Spain belonging to 119 genera
in 82 families are included in this heavy book (weight
1,8 kg, 617 pages).
For each plant the informations from the well-known
data-base Napralet (Prof. N . Farmsworth, Chicago) up to
and including 1993 are used.
The plants are arranged according to the alphabetic order
of the plant families. Each monography comprises:
a) family of plant,
b) scientific name,
c) synonyms,
d) common names,
e) botanical description,
f) photo or design (not for all species),
g) ethnomedical use and how it is used,
h) chemistry,
i) pharmacological activity and biological action,
j) references.
The authors from 19 Ibero-american countries and au-
thors from Spain and Portugal are responsible for the text
on the species from their country. The Napralet-informa-
tions are formulated by the Editor.
The amount of information for each plant species is very
varying. This also applies to the references (some go back
rather long, at least to 1907). All this is natural, but when
the references is not mentioned in the text (author and year),
then it is more difficult to identify it for detailed study.
The selection of medicinal plants can always be dis-
cussed. As an example: I am missing the Dorstenia species
in Nicaragua, which are typical folkmedicine against diar-
rhoea.
In the introduction Prof Gupta writes that species that
are cultivated extensively should not be included, but Stevia
rebaudiana, Ricinus communis, Psychotria ipecacuanha
are cultivated, partl y in big quantities.
I do hope that the reader of this lines has got an idea of
the huge valuable compilation that professor Mahabir
Gupta has performed to benefit of researcher in the field of
Ibero-american medicinal plants. I would guess that the
ethnobotanists and ehtnopharmacologists will be groups
that find this book most valuable. The title of the book
gives a problem. The correct title shoud be:
"242 Ibero-american and 9 Portugese and 19 Spanish
medicinal plants. "
All information says that the spanish adjective Ibero-
americanas includes plants from Mexico to Chile, but not
from Portugal and Spain.
In this context I also want to mention the TRAMIL-meet-
ings, where the countries round the Carribean Sea discuss
the results of field work on medicinal plants from the Car-
ibbean region. These meetings are organised by the excel-
lent Dr. Lionel Robineau from the organisation ENDA-
Carite , Santo Domingo.
Finn Sandberg (Uppsala, Sweden)