Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Indian Ocean Islands

Following an overview of the geography, geomorphology, climate, flora and habitats of each island, the main section of this large, and at first glance attractive, book is taken up with monographs of around 350 medicinal and aromatic plants native to Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles and the Mascarenes group, comprising Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion. It concentrates on the rarer and less well known species in the hope of building support for conservation initiatives in a region where biodiversity is being rapidly lost. There are colour plates of 192 of the species in a separate section. Many of the photographs are of foliage only so may not be very useful in distinguishing between related species. The monographs themselves provide information about taxonomy and traditional uses, a detailed botanical description and line drawing, distribution and ecology, conservation status, chemistry, pharmacology, and traditional medicinal uses.

Quite understandably, for many species there is no specific information regarding the chemistry or pharmacology available. This does not prevent the authors from providing information gleaned from related species. I found this practice rather dubious and would have preferred to see a simple statement that no information is available. Similarly, details of traditional medicinal use are given without any systematic reporting of scientific evaluations of efficacy or safety in the indications mentioned. Preclinical data are given for many species but how the authors went about searching for and selecting these data is not known. Frequently, the authors rely on quoting the assertions of other writers that the species in question is useful for one indication or another, and give second-hand recipes or other information about how the plant is used in certain indications. These indications include the minor (e.g. indigestion), the serious (e.g. high blood pressure) and the vague (e.g. liver problems). There are no safety warnings, no information about doses or treatment periods and no qualifying statements about consulting doctors, proper diagnosis or expert identification of the correct species.

While this book may be of some value for those with a specific interest in the flora of these islands, I cannot recommend it more generally.