The Gardener's Companion to Medicinal Plants by Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

The Gardener's Companion to Medicinal Plants by Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

This beautifully illustrated giftable gardening reference book is a complete guide to the growing and use of medicinal plants, combining exquisite botanical illustrations with practical self-help projects.

Every day sees a discovery in the press about the new uses of plants, and it's certain that most of our most important drugs are derived from plants. From willow (used to procure aspirin) to periwinkle (used in chemotherapy to treat lymphoma) many common garden plants have provided cures in modern medicine.

In this book readers can discover more than 200 life-saving plants and 25 home-grown remedies to make themselves. Each plant is catalogued and the traditional and modern uses are detailed, alongside a beautiful botanical illustration. Each home cure is described and illustrated with step-by-step photographs to show how you can be a gardener and heal yourself.

Recipes include:

• Dried lemon balm, 
• Passionflower sleep tea, 
• Plantain balm, 
• Rosehip syrup,  
• Rosemary infused oil, 
• Elderberry vinegar, 
• Chickweed cream, 
• Comfrey ointment, 
• Nettle soup, 
• Dried valerian root.

The Gardener's Companion to Medicinal Plants is part of the Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing series and is accompanied by Growing Herbs, Growing House Plants, Growing Vegetables, Growing Orchids and Growing Fruit. 

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. Over the past 250 years Kew has made innumerable contributions to increasing the understanding of plants and fungi with many benefits for humankind.

Jason Irving is a writer, forager and qualified herbalist. He works at Kew Gardens on the Medicinal Plant Names Services project, developing and promoting a global resource for plant names. His passion for plants was sparked during the two years he spent working for the UK's leading supplier of wild foods, Forager Ltd. Over the last five years Jason has taught hundreds of people how to find, identify and use wild plants on his popular foraging and herbal medicine courses in London. His essay on the history of cocktail bitters was included in the book Kew's Teas, Tonics and Tipples and he was botanical consultant for the book Edible City by John Rensten.