Ayurvedic Medicine clearly and comprehensively presents the unique theories and traditions of Ayurveda making them accessible to the health practitioner of today. With a brief history of traditional medicine in India and discussion of principles, treatment strategies and traditional Ayurvedic pharmacy and pharmacology, the book offers an essential overview of the culture in which Ayurveda has developed and the scientific basis behind this holistic approach. It details over 100 plant profiles of Ayurvedic herbs, with images of fresh and dried plants, and 50 traditional formulas, including characteristics, usage, combinations, contraindications, and safety and dosage information for each. This essential resource explains the traditional medical system of Ayurveda, and provides guidance to students and practitioners on how to incorporate herbal medicine into their life and practice.
Sebastian Pole is a British practitioner of ayurveda, traditional Chinese and Western herbal medicine as well as a professional teacher of yoga and is a pioneer in the cultivation of organic ayurvedic herbs in the UK, and has had extensive clinical training in ayurvedic clinics and hospitals in India. He has presented the health care community and the ayurvedic profession with what surely will become the definitive textbook of ayurvedic herbal medicine for aspiring practitioners and manual for clinicians in the Western and English-speaking world.
This book has filled a desperate and long-felt need for an English-language work that is at a sufficient level of clinical detail for working and student practitioners of ayurveda. It is replete with color photographs, superbly well-organized details on each herb catalogued, and very well written. I refer to it daily in both my practice and my teaching.
"Ayurvedic Medicine: The Principles of Traditional Practice" provides a deep and broad understanding of the theory underlying ayurvedic pharmacology and therapeutics along with a practical materia medica of over 80 ayurvedic plant remedies, each carefully denoted by its common Indian name, Sanskrit and Latin name, description, color photographs of the herb in both its prepared and fresh forms, energetics, phytoconstitutents, ayurvedic and biomedical actions, indications, contraindications, safety issues, formulations and dosage, along with additional notes.
The work is divided into three main sections. Part 1 presents a history of ayurveda and the development of its materia medica; basic principles (the panch mahabhutas, the three doshas, the saptadhatus, the srota, ayurvedic anatomy, disease etiology and pathology); principles of ayurvedic herbal pharmacology and pharmacy; ayurvedic diagnosis and therapeutics, treatment protocols and the scientific basis for ayurveda's claims. Part 2 presents the plant profiles, herb sourcing, and traditional formulas, and Part 3 contains useful tabular appendices, a glossary, herbal sources, plant name indices, and transliteration and pronunciation notes. An Excellent, Much Needed work
Everyone involved in ayurveda, and in a larger sense everyone involved in or interested in health care, complimentary medicine or herbalism, owes Mr. Pole a huge debt of gratitude for this excellent and very much needed work.
. An excellent textbook for any Ayurvedic student or the curious, although without atleast a somewhat thorough understanding of the basics of ayurveda much of this book will fly over your head . It's great in its level headed approach to ideas of the history of ayurveda and ayurveda's place in a world dominated by western medical approaches. . The herbal index, case studies, appendix tables and recomended combos are par none, This is not only a useful learning tool but also one that any practitioner of ayurveda will come back to regularly when writing up treatment plans for their clients.