Steven Horne is one of the leaders the herbal renaissance which began with only a few of us during the mid 20^th century. He has had a distinguished career and powerful impact on the course of herbal medicine for the last 45 years, and is a past president of the American Herbalists Guild.

Thomas Easley is a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild and has been in full-time clinical practice for the last 12 years.

Their monumental new book Modern Herbal Medicine has taken over four years to bring to publication and is an important contribution for any and all who are interested in herbs as medicine. The book should be a welcome contribution to the herb consumer, herbal retailer, or professional herbalist. Unlike other books that may on the surface seem similar, this book was written by herbalists with decades of clinical experience. That in itself should be enough of a reason to obtain a copy for your herbal reference shelf.

It begins with a well-considered introduction to the principles of herbal prescribing and use. From there, it discusses hundreds of health conditions in considerable detail, providing disease descriptions as well as possible causes. It then offers the best herbs that are in commerce that would be useful for treatment. Other therapies such as affirmation, visualization, aromatherapy, colon hydrotherapy, allergy-eliminating diets, different nutritional approaches, metal cleansing, important strategies for stress management, and many more are also offered. A compendium of herbal formulas categorized by action and a materia medica of key herbs are also included.

Finally, a unique aspect of the book is mentioning by name high quality specific companies and herbal formulations that one can use for treatment. No other book has done this. In fact, it is illegal for companies to identify any of their products as effective for any specific ‘named’ disease, which is the way most people relate to herbal usage. While this regulation helps to safeguard the rights of pharmaceutical companies who place a tremendous burden and hardship on the public and health care of this country with their exorbitant fees for prescription drugs, it also creates misleading challenges and difficulties for the health consumer and retail stores to find the appropriate herbal treatment formula or product.

If a company alters the formulation of one of the products mentioned by name in the book, it will be recorded in an online database companion to the book.

This is a unique and worthwhile book to keep on hand as a reference. Every herb or health store should have a reference copy for sure.