A perennial favourite with students and practitioners, this is the go-to reference book for 180 medicinal herbs and their actions. Materia Medica of Western Herbs is designed for worldwide use and contains detailed monographs of 180 of the most commonly used medicinal herbs. Each herb is presented with: • Plant name and picture • Parts used • Actions • Pharmacy • Interaction with drugs • Botanical description • Active constituents • Scientific information • Precaution and/or Safety • Historical uses • Habitat and geographical location • Nutritional constituents • Medicinal uses There are appendices to help students understand pharmacological and medicinal actions, a glossary listing the known actions of common constituents, a table of interactions and a comprehensive therapeutic index. At the start of the book, medicinal herbs are listed by both their medicinal and common names. Based on the original  Materia Medica of Western Herbs  by Carole Fisher and Gilian Painter, this new book has been reset and streamlined to include botanical, scientific, pharmacy and safety information. This textbook is valuable not only for students and practitioners of herbal medicine but is also of use to any health provider who wishes to know more about how and why herbs work and the safety issues related to them. Carole Fisher gained a BSc degree in biochemistry and spent some years in both research and routine laboratories before training in herbal medicine through the National Institute of Herbal Medicine (UK). She has been in practice as a medical herbalist since 1993 and has also recently returned to further education, completing a Diploma in Public Health at Otago University and a PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney. Materia Medica of Western Herbs By Carole Fisher Aeon Books Ltd Copyright © 2018 Carole Fisher All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-911597-51-3 CHAPTER 1 APIACEAE [Formerly known as Umbelliferae] There are 300 genera in this family which is plentiful in all parts of the temperate world but not in the tropics. Many of our common vegetables belong to this family e.g. carrot, parsnip, celery and many of the seed spices e.g. dill, cumin and anise. The general characteristics of the Apiaceae are: * The flowers are very small, in umbels * The sepals are tiny or lacking * There are 5 free petals, each curved at the tip * The 5 stamens are attached to a disc around the base of the styles * The pistil has 2 styles and stigmas. Its ovary is inferior with 2 carpels * The fruit is distinctive. The 2 dry carpels split apart. They separate at the base, but hang by their tops from a slender stalk. Each contains 1 seed. On their surfaces are the oil ducts which give the flavour and distinctive odour * The leaf stalks often have sheaths which wrap around the plant stems * Usually the leaves are much divided, even fern-like * Outer florets are often enlarged and sterile serving only as banners to guide pollinating insects * Nearly all members of the family are herbaceous annuals or * biennials but Foeniculum vulgare is perennial There are three sub-families: 1. Apioideae which contains, among others, the following genera — Ammi, Angelica, Anthriscus, Apium, Conium, Coriandrum, Daucus, Foeniculum, Petroselinum 2. Hydrocotyloideae which contains the genus Centella 3. Saniculoideae Angelica archangelica Description Angelica archangelica is a robust biennial with a stout taproot grown from seed. In the first year it forms a clump of large, matt green leaves borne on round, hollow, green stems 0.5–1 m long, depending on the season and distance from the equator. It dies back in winter and in the second year grows larger and sends up one or more flowering stems. It blooms in early spring and dies after seeding. Basal leaves large, 30–60 cm, 2–3 times pinnate, lobes oval lance-shaped and toothed. Stalk leaves smaller or reduced to inflated sheaths enclosing flower buds. Flower stems stout, grooved, round and hollow, 1–2 m high with branches topped by green or greenish-white flowers in globular umbels. Fruits 5–6 mm with ribs which become corky. All parts are aromatic. Odour — intensely spicy; taste — at first aromatic then acrid, bitter and lastingly pungent. Habitat and cultivation Angelica is native to parts of Europe and Asia and is naturalised in damp situations, blooming in spring/summer of its second year. Cultivated from fresh seed in cooler climates, in sun with well-drained soil. Frost and drought resistant. Parts used Leaves — harvested at the end of the first year and as the plant comes in to flower. Roots and rhizomes — harvested in the autumn of the first year or early spring of second year before flowering. The oil content is highest in roots greater than 5 mm in diameter. Seeds — harvested when ripe (use of the seeds appears to be a modern adaptation). Culpeper favoured the root over the leaves. Active constituents 1) Volatile oil including a- and ß-phella