James A. Duke, Ph.D., a botanist and former USDA researcher, is widely considered one of the world’s leading authorities on healing plants. He is the author of over 20 books and hundreds of articles on the healing powers of plant medicine.
Steven Foster writes about the amazing career of James Duke in Ode to Jim Duke: America's Chief Herbalist.
“Duke, a key figure of the herbal renaissance, is a Renaissance man in the broadest sense. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1929, Duke was a bluegrass fiddler by age sixteen and even appeared at the Grand Ole Opry. An interest in plants was not far behind his interest in music. In 1955, he received a degree in botany from the University of North Carolina. In 1961, the same institution conferred a doctorate in botany upon him. Post- graduate work took him to Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. It was there that he developed what has become, as he puts it, ‘my overriding interest— neotropical ethnobotany.’”
—Steven Foster
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Photo by Helen Lowe Metzman |
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The Health Benefits of Pepper
A chemical component that helps the
body more readily absorb drugs and
nutrients may make pepper valuable
for your health. Read all about the
medicinal benefits of pepper here.
Many characteristics make piperine
particularly suitable for its medicinal
role: making drugs and nutrients more bioavailable by increasing absorption
in the gut and slowing the rate at which drugs in particular are neutralized and eliminated.
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James Duke in
The Herb Companion
• A Tribute to Six Medicinal Plants
• Inside Plants: Arginine For Impotence
• Herbs of the Bible
• Beans for Good Health
• Evening Primrose for Eczema
• Preventing Alzheimer's with Herbs
• Healing Plants with Cyanide
• The Health Benefits of Mushrooms
• Saponin: Natural Steroids
• Soothe Your Throat with Eucalyptus
• Protect the Body with Carotenoids
• Propolis: An Age-Old Medicine
• Soothe Aching Joints with Frankincense
• Lower Risk for Heart Disease
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