For holidays go thte following book: _The Natural History of Medicinal
Plants_ by Judith Sumner.  Mark Plotkin, who is neat guy,not to mention
very well educated, did the forward.  Haven't spoken with him in a while
but used to know him long time ago; very open minded -- extremely so --
but also willing to critically think about things.  He is one of the
people who interacts with Amazon shamans and then brings back components
for study tofind what works and what doesn't.  Any moneys fromthose
inquiries getplowed back into habitat and cultural preservation.  Very
improtant stuff (finding the components and how to make them) as opposed
to over-harvesting or ripping off an area.  Am just starting book and hope
to be able tocontinue straight through instead of stoppinand restarting.
Did you know that some of the health claims for differnet herbs have
nothing at all -- nada, zip, zilch -- to do with observation of actions
but only with what body part the observer thought the herbs looked like?
At verious points in several cultures it was thought that such use-clues
existed.  There are, of course, also claims based on observation so those
are the ones which have to studied tofind out when they hold up reliably.
[Posted in FML issue 3286]