Logo

Contents: 1. Cultivation of Medicinal plants in Australia region. 2. Herb plants in New Zealand. 3. Medicinal plants of Australia. 4. Medicinal Plants of Australian subcontinent.

Australian Medicinal Plants is an invaluable resource for all those interested in herbal medicine, Aboriginal culture and Australian flora. Plants have been used for medicinal purposes since earliest recorded history all over the world. Australia is no exception, its varied flora providing the Aborigines with their medicines. With the arrival of Europeans much of this knowledge was overtaken by modern drugs and techniques but today there is a revival of interest in traditional medicines. The Australian Aboriginal people have used plants as medicine for thousands of years and have a vast reservoir of knowledge of Australia’s unique flora. However, this traditional knowledge is poorly documented and is in danger of being lost, especially in southern and eastern Australia due to dislocation and greater westernisation of Aboriginal communities. During the last twenty years, anthropologists have worked in central and north-western Australia to record what is left of aboriginal medical lore. In Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, and in the deserts of western and central Australia, there are still aborigines living who were reared without the influence of Western ways. Their testimony has produced a starling picture of a complex and sophisticated pharmacopoeia, embracing remedies for all manner of ailments. Whether aborigines in southern Australia had the same range of plant remedies, it is impossible to say.