Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke: Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine

by Marcello Pennacchio, Lara Jefferson, Kayri Havens, David Sollenberger (Illustrator)

Overview

Plants provide the food, shelter, medicines, and biomass that underlie sustainable life. One of the earliest and often overlooked uses of plants is the production of smoke, dating to the time of early hominid species. Plant-derived smoke has had an enormous socio-economic impact throughout human history, being burned for medicinal and recreational purposes, magico-religious ceremonies, pest control, food preservation, and flavoring, perfumes, and incense. This illustrated global compendium documents and describes approximately 2,000 global uses for over 1,400 plant species. The Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke is accessibly written and provides a wealth of information on human uses for smoke. Divided into nine main categories of use, the compendium lists plant-derived smoke's medicinal, historical, ceremonial, ritual and recreational uses. Plant use in the production of incense and to preserve and flavor foods and beverages is also included. Each entry includes full binomial names and family, an identification of the person who named the plant, as well as numerous references to other scholarly texts. Of particular interest will be plants such as Tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum), Boswellia spp (frankincense), and Datura stramonium (smoked as a treatment for asthma all over the world), all of which are described in great detail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199888061
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Marcello Pennacchio is an ethnobotanist with more than twelve years of experience in research and teaching in this area. He has published many peer-reviewed journal articles on traditional Australian Aboriginal uses for plants, with special emphasis on those considered useful for treating heart-related diseases. His current research interests include plants that can be smoked for medicinal and other purposes. Lara V. Jefferson is a restoration ecologist. She too has written scholarly journal articles and has presented her work at various conferences all over the world. Her main research interests are invasive plant species and using smoke to promote seed germination. Kayri Havens is the Medard and Elizabeth Welch Director of the Division for Plant Biology and Conservation at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Dr Havens has also written scholarly journal articles and recently co-authored and co-edited a book on conservation, titled Ex-situ Plant Conservation (Island Press).

Table of Contents

Foreword Preface and acknowledgments Introduction Fire and Smoke Medicinal Uses for Plant-derived Smoke Purification Evil and Medicine Magico-religious and Ceremonial Uses Incense Incense producing plants Recreational Uses Assassinations Pest Control Perfumes, Flavoring and Preservation Veterinary uses Toxic and obnoxious smoke Smoke signals Bibliography Glossary Index of scientific names Subject index

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Qi Chen, Ph.D(University of Kansas Medical Center)
Description: This unique book is the first to provide comprehensive information about 1,500 species of plants used for the smoke they produce, categorized into nine main uses, with details on some highly popular species such as tobacco, cannabis, and jimsonweed.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide a comprehensive account of the ethnobotanical uses of the plants that are burned for smoke, and the huge socioeconomic impact that these plants have had throughout history. Plants are essential in human life and culture, and the use of plant-derived smoke is an important cultural trait that should be documented. Novel compounds that have medical and other potential uses are quite possible awaiting discovery from the combustion of a plant.
Audience: This should be interesting to botanists, ethnoscientists, medical professionals, pharmacologists, anthropologists, historians, theologians, as well as plant lovers. The authors are experts in ethnobotany, restoration ecology, and plant biology and conservation.
Features: The book collects a wealth of information on the uses and users of close to 1,500 plant species for medicinal and recreational purposes, magico-religious ceremonies, pest control, food preservation and flavoring, perfumes, in veterinary medicine, and other toxic or unspecified uses. Following the introduction, an alphabetical list of the plants that are burned for smoke provides the common name of the plant, the country where the uses were reported, the names of the groups of people who used the plants, the parts of the plants used, and the purpose of the uses. Many important species are highlighted with pictures and detailed descriptions, such as the popular uses of tobacco, jimsonweed, and junipers.
Assessment: This book provides rich and interesting information about the global and historical use of plant-derived smoke. I am not aware of another book in this field. It is a valuable contribution and should be an important resource for medical professionals and researchers who are interested in the many ways that plants and plants-derived smoke have impacted our lives and cultures.

Doody's Review Service

"A distinctive, excellent resource for a specialized topic. Readers who think that plant smoke is just for inhaling intoxicants will be surprised by the breadth of human uses of smoke derived from plants, such as seed germination, pest control, and veterinary medicine. Academic libraries supporting programs in areas such as agriculture, ethnobotany, history, cosmetics, and medicine may benefit from this thoroughly researched volume." — Choice

"A fascinating excursion. This book demonstrates that there's a lot more to smoke created from plant material than just nicotine and narcotics. Although this book remains morally neutral on the rights and wrongs of smoking various substances, it goes some way towards countering the view that plant smoke is always a bad thing."—Green Prophet

"The list of plants presented through the authors extensive literature search is a valuable entity. Perhaps this book's greatest contribution will be in its ability to stimulate research into identification of phytochemicals in a plant's smoke responsible for its ethnobotanical uses." — Robert J. Krueger, Ferris St. University, Economic Botany

From the Publisher