Hot Plants - Book Review

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

In the same spirit as the last post's, I am sharing one more review of

a medical book. Those who are thinking of trying Viagra or Cialis

etc., may first like to read this book and check out the neighborhood

herbal stores or the sources suggested by the book's author. The

author is attached to one of USA's universities.

 

Swamy

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Title: Hot Plants – Nature's Proven Sex Boosters for Men and Women

Author: Chris Kilham

Publisher: St.Martin's Griffin (www.stmartins.com)

ISBN: 0-312-31539-2

No. of Pages: 208

Genre: Non-fiction, Health, Herbalism

 

Hot Plants is Chris Kilham's account of exploration of plants,

which help men and women lead better sex lives and thus enjoy better

health. The author is a medicine hunter, author and educator and is

the Explorer in Residence at the University of Massachusetts at

Amherst, where he teaches ethnobotany. He has written a dozen books,

four of which are listed in side the book.

 

In this particular book, Chris explores about 10 medicinal plants

including some like Aswagandha, Yohimbe and Ginseng, which have been

well known all over the world and a few lesser known (to me atleast).

He describes for each plant, the active part, the location, the

scientific studies conducted if any and the views of the traditional

doctors, herbalists and the users. He has tried almost all of them

himself and thus what he writes can certainly be taken as authentic.

He also gives the side effects for some of the plants where they are

applicable. He finishes the book with a very engaging account of the

benefits of chocolate, not from the erotic angle but from the angle of

love and bonding.

 

His writing style is engaging and the accounts of his wide ranging

travels and his experiences with people of various civilizations makes

the book an interesting read. He got a few Indian names wrong (he

refers to Dr.Prabhakaran as Dr.Prabakhan and Vata as Vatta), which I

hope he will correct in future editions. His perception of the Hindu

Gods Krishna and Siva may offend orthodox Hindus and fundamentalists.

The conversion of temperatures by the author from Centigrade (Celsius)

scale to Fahrenheit scale is approximate at some places. The special

feature of -40 degrees in the temperature scale (that -40 F and -40 C

are exactly equal) does not come through in the book.

 

The book would have been certainly more valuable if a few photographs

of the plants were included. The author's recommendations at the

end will be certainly useful to those who would like to try out these

plants as a good substitute for Viagra and Cialis etc.