The author has accomplished a feat worthy of the greatest botanist's life's work. He has painstakingly labored to scientifically and correctly classify some of the world's plants which are held in highest esteem, either for their medicinal value or for their religious and spiritual significance. In so doing, he has managed to demonstrate that legend and lore, as well as medicinal practices and herbal usage of traditional doctors, can be scientifically supported.

Traditional medicine on all continents and from all cultures seem to have a common beginning. Perhaps this knowledge of the healing wonders of the plant world is available to all persons through some source which we do not as yet understand.

Dr. Andoh has been pursuing the task of collecting data for this book for some eleven years and his meticulous work will, surely, be greatly appreciated by anyone interested in plants and especially students of ethnobotany. He deserves our gratitude for his perseverance and achievement.

This book is special in that it gives scientific data in an interesting, entertaining and intriguing manner. It opens the door for other scientists to take a more open-minded and investigative look at the healing practices of traditional cultures.

Further investigation must come soon, so as to preserve this ancient knowledge -- before it has been swept away and discarded, along with the trees and forests, by the new technology.