The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications Author: Christian R?tsch | Language: English | ISBN:
B005VRKR0U | Format: PDF
The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications Description
In the traditions of every culture, psychoactive plants--those known to transport the mind to other dimensions of consciousness--have been regarded as sacred. This book details the history, botany, and use of psychoactive plants and is lavishly illustrated with color photographs of the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactive plants.
- File Size: 51306 KB
- Print Length: 944 pages
- Publisher: Park Street Press (April 25, 2005)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B005VRKR0U
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,632 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #6
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- #6
in Books > Medical Books > Pharmacology > Pharmacodynamics - #27
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Psychopharmacology - #28
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Medical Reference > Drug Guides
At over 7 pounds, this book is packed with information! The first 700 pages of it are individual profiles of a wide range of psychoactive plants and fungi--including info on their active constituents, history, usage, and cultivation. The remainder of the book is broken into two sections, one describing major classes of chemicals, and the other focused on plant mixtures and legendary compounds like soma. This is primarily a reference work, but it's more entertaining and comprehensive than Ott's Pharmacotheon.
It's only major flaw is failing as an effective identification guide. All of the images are small, about 2" x 2" and relegated to the margins. While peppered with Ratsch's own photos which are unavailable elsewhere, there are few botanical illustrations other than some of the commonly seen historical woodcuts.
Ratsch chooses to give us a comprehensive view of the information available rather than leaning towards practical application. Plants like monkshood and Datura are mentioned as dangerous only in passing. Dosage guidelines in general are rather vague. Heimia salicifolia and puffball mushrooms are included based on their rumored effectiveness--along with research that contradicts it. He typically presents all the evidence and leaves it up to the reader to make their own educated decisions.
Ratsch does a superb job collating all the data currently available from various sources and adds to it his own research and insights. And unlike most other books on entheogens, he also covers stimulant and sedative plants and even some of the less psychoactive herbals. In spite of it's lack of illustrations, if you buy one reference on psychoactive plants this is the book you'll want.
By Rob-cubed
This is an unprecedentedly massive reference work centering on visionary plants. It's an order of magnitude larger than previous comprehensive entheogen reference works such as the High Times Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs, Hofmann's Plants of the Gods, Ott's Pharmacotheon, and Stafford's Psychedelics Encyclopedia.
By Michael Hoffman
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