Chinese Herbal Medicine - Materia Medica: Portable 3rd edition

Chinese Herbal Medicine - Materia Medica: portable 3rd edition
This edition is noticeable smaller and easier to carry around with you. The binding is great and the cover is very flexible yet sturdy. It has two shades of blue ribbon bookmarks. The quality of the paper is very thin and you can definitely see the printing of the opposite side through the paper. This was most likely the trade-off to make it smaller and more portable. On the right (full web mode), you can see the size comparison of this portable edition and the standard edition.

The third edition of Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica is designed to give practitioners the information they need to practice with greater understanding and confidence. It provides a wealth of new information - more than twice
the content of the previous edition - and practical insight into more than 530 of the
most commonly used herbs in the Chinese pharmacopoeia.

Authentic
Drawing from a wide range of sources, both classical and modern, this edition provides unparalleled perspective and detail that goes far beyond what is available elsewhere to the Western practitioner.

Functional
Herbs are grouped in chapters by function, with expanded summaries and tables for contrast and comparison. Each herb is identified by its pharmaceutical, pinyin, botanical, and family names, as well as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English common names.

Convenient
Key characteristics are provided at the beginning of each entry, along with dosage, properties, channels entered, and relevant cautions and contraindications. This provides a quick overview of essential information.

Integrated
Actions and indications are integrated with important combinations that illustrate the range of an herb's functions, with references to appropriate formulas. This presents a more three-dimensional picture of how each herb is actually used.

Insightful
Expanded commentary offers in-depth analysis and places the herb in its clinical context through rich historical references. The mechanisms of action underlying important combinations, and comparisons with similar herbs, provide a broader
context for understanding how the herb can be used with optimal effect.

Practical
A section devoted to nomenclature and preparation describes the most important methods of processing and preparing each herb, with advice on how and when the method should be used. It also provides information about other commonly-used names and the historical background of the herb.

Safe & Precise
Safety is an important focus of this edition, with an emphasis on proper herb identification. Issues concerning standardized products, desirable qualities, variants, and adulterants are explained for each herb. There is also extensive information on toxicity, as well as chemical constituents.

Resource-rich
The utility of this book is enhanced by its wide range of appendices, among which are color photographs comparing the standard and adulterant forms of over twenty common herbs; tables of herbs that are indicated for specific pathologies of the five yin organs; and extensive cross references of the herbs by taxonomy, pinyin, pharmaceutical name, and other East Asian
languages. There are also comprehensive indices of both herbs and formulas, as well as a general index.