Encyclopedia of herbal medicine

Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine is Andrew Chevallier's illustrated home reference to the medicinal use of plants. Chevallier, a fellow and former president of Britain's National Institute of Medical Herbalists, catalogues 550 herbs by Latin name. One hundred key plants are given a full illustrated entry covering habitat and cultivation, the parts used, the active constituents, the plant's actions and how it is prepared; a further 450 are described in shorter entries.

The book also traces the development of herbal medicine and the herbal traditions of the world, before turning practical: growing and harvesting herbs, preparing remedies at home, and matching them to common ailments, with attention to quality control and safe use.

First published in 1996 as The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants, it was retitled Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine for the second edition in 2000 and revised again for the third and fourth, each edition updating the research while keeping the same format and scope.