South African Traditional Medicinal Plants from KwaZulu-Natal

South African Traditional Medicinal Plants from KwaZulu-Natal is a two-volume set based on notebooks that Norwegian medical doctor Henrik Greve Blessing wrote when he was visiting the KwaZulu-Natal district in the years 1901-1904. (Earlier, Blessing was the medical doctor on board the ship Fram that went towards the North Pole with Fridtjof Nansen during the years 1893-1896.) Blessing had relatives who worked as missionaries in KwaZulu-Natal and it was during a visit that he prepared the beautiful notebooks that form the basis for the present book. He described 98 plants - both botanically and with their local use for illnesses, pains, and as agents against poisoning. For most plants, the only names given were the Zulu names. The final part of the book is a facsimile of Blessing's original notebooks. It is of cultural, medicinal, and pharmaceutical-historic interest, and it represents part of the historic relations between South Africa and Norway. *** "...an unusual collaboration of pharmacists and chemists who examined Blessing's excellent records of traditional medical practices a century ago....researchers were able to confirm 95 of the 98 plants originally described....an invaluable historical and botanical work." Adele Kleine, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden. Ë?