Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets

Dr. Plotkin's exciting new book recounts the search for new medicines in previously undocumented plant, animal, and microbial species in places both familiar, fascinating and foreign. With a near infinite amount of skill, passion, and knowledge, Dr. Plotkin gives the reader a glimpse of the new frontier of medicine and pharmacy that is at once both fascinating and horrifying.Medicine Quest begins by graphically demonstrating the devastation and horror that diseases such as diabetes and cancer wreak upon unfortunate souls. It then leads into the possibility of new hope for cures for this and other Western ailments. Several chapters in the book detail at length the promise potential, and reality of 'bio-prospecting'- or the exploration of diverse environments for novel molecules with beneficial biological and medicinal activity.Dr. Plotkin takes the reader on a fascinating journey encompassing many unusual aspects of the natural pharmacopoeia. He shows the reader how Western medicine has been and continues to be more dependent on natural products than medical professionals and drug companies would normally like us to believe. Throughout the book, Dr. Plotkin relates many advances in this new frontier with a mix of jaded idealism and practical honesty that is both refreshing and alarming.His yarn is refreshing because at no point is the reader subjected to a sales pitch or wild claims about the efficacy of natural products. Nowhere in the text is there a comparison of which medicine is better- natural vs. synthetic, Western vs. Eastern, modern vs. shamanistic. This is so because he takes as given that many of our advances in chemical therapeutics take nature as their cue and foundation. He shows us how many researchers and drug companies are using naturally occuring molecules as a basis for developing new and more powerful drugs to combat a variety aches, pains, and diseases.Dr. Plotkin's book is also alarming because it underscores the real crisis in modern medicine today. In vignets such as 'A Poison for Your Pain', he shows how Western medicine has been reduced to using extremely toxic poisons to cure chronic pain. Dr. Plotkin also points out how greed, fear, and desperation are driving the merging of the knowledge of the shaman with the powerful tools of bio-technology. Dr. Plotkin makes no bones about saving the rainforest and other natural habitats solely for the possibility of profitable bio-prospecting (which many view as a polite way of saying the plunder of diverse genetic resources). Reading Medicine Quest begs the question from the concerned environmentalist and intelligent lay-person: once the biological treasures of the rain forest have been thorougly mined, and the knowledge of the medicine man completely tapped, what real committment will there be to saving and preserving endangered and undiscovered species and habitats? The very real danger here is that using the tools of modern bio-technology, companies only need smal

Mark Plotkin in his new book, Medicine Quest, has provided us with convincing and compelling evidence that pharmacognosy, the study of nature-based medicines, can yield many solutions to our collective human ills. This is a book that should be required reading for all high school and college biology students. As a result, many may be inspired to pursue creative research into the biochemistry of natural products. Such study will foster a more refined view of the importance of ecological balance, and the essential nature of biodiversity. Every creature, no matter how lowly, may provide insight into our own physiology and potential cures for human pathology.

Students in a Psychology of Healing class have this to say about Medicine Quest:"I really liked Medicine Quest, which wasn't surprising because I liked the first book Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice. Medicine Quest was another well-done, highly informative book about the secrets of the jungle. We could learn a lot from the people of these forests, if only we had the mind to listen to them. What I especially liked was the feeling of being a tourist on adventures following along on all of Mark Plotkin's journeys. He really brings you to the heart of these native peoples' cultures and beliefs.""I appreciated the hope I felt as I read the entire book. Dr. Plotkin indicated there is so much unexplored wilderness yet to be examined. I liked knowing that there are people like Mark Plotkin who will not stop until answers are found. What courage he has! I liked how he enmeshed his personal life with his 'quest' to find natural healing remedies. I felt some personal emotions as he discussed hope for finding a remedy for brain tumors.""The book, Medicine Quest by Mark Plotkin, had many features to recommend it. I particularly liked his story-telling style, the way the book exposed new possibilities, the sense of adventure that was portrayed and the way he brought hope in relation to killer diseases such as diabetes. It was a great book that I wouldn't have read if not for this class. I'm glad I did!""I felt that the book was simply piled with information. It seems so weird to think that we, the Western 'modern civilization,' really have not even come close to tapping into the natural medicines, resources, techniques, and solutions that are out there in the world as a whole. I thought it was cool (I know I really shouldn't have because of the pain he was in), but I was truly moved and touched how that tribe had him drink the liquid and he was in so much pain he felt he had died and the shaman was able to resolve his pain, viz., the symbolism of the whole event of being reborn and your spirit leaving and running free and returning.""I enjoyed Medicine Quest very much. I found it was easy to read, much like an entertaining novel--yet it was full of information like a text on science, biology, and sociology. I found that Dr. Plotkin has a great respect for life. It is evident in his work with other cultures and his appreciation of living things. I especially enjoyed the historical information regarding the development of medicines. Dr. Plotkin has a wonderful talent and insight for explanation and making connections between the scientific world and mainstream society. I think Dr. Plotkin is a good voice for the conservation of the rain forest--for helping everyone realize that we are all connected throughout the world and yet we all can learn from each other. I found the information regarding animals and their uses of plants as medicine interesting and truly an indication that we have much to learn."

My undergraduate class, comprising a wide variety of majors from biology and nursing to psychology and religious studies, read Medicine Quest and provided the following reviews:"The thing I liked about Medicine Quest was the way it talked about specific animals and the purposes they have. The most impressive thing was the poisonous frog that can fit on the tip of a person's finger--although it is colorful, the birds know they cannot eat it. Even though we have medicines in our Western culture, I believe this book gives much more hope of finding natural cures that will not harm other organs in a person's body while trying to heal something else. The more I read, the less I want to take of our so-called 'cures'.""Medicine Quest was a fact-filled, eye-opening delight. It discussed medicines of yesterday, today, the future and those still uncovered. The many wonders and treasures the rain forest holds is mind boggling. The oceans, seas and rivers have still to be deeply explored and treasures to medicine and health will continue to be uncovered. The focus on how we, as a whole, are destroying the environment (by cutting down trees or increasing the global temperatures of water) is eye-opening. That we could be destroying precious life and chemicals is heart-wrenching. Everything from the fungi that eats insects' brains to bumblebees to sponges can hold value, even when we do not see it. To think that the cure to AIDS could be sitting 12,000 miles under the sea in some little bacteria on the tooth of a giant squid-like eel makes us aware that things are not always as they seem. Bacteria, for instance, are not the dumb entities we believe them to be. The section talking about penicillin and the bacteria immune to it proves just how capable and smart they can be. Dr. Plotkin has outdone himself again.""Medicine Quest shows the incredible link between the natural world and our technological world. It teaches how very interrelated they are and how the loss of species of animals and plants could potentially destroy a treasure trove of medicines. From common animals such as rattlesnakes and leeches to those species that are quickly disappearing (cone snails and everything contained in the rain forests), Dr. Plotkin shows what we are doing to the Earth and ultimately to ourselves. And the best part is that through the sometimes depressing news, he still manages to keep his sense of humor.""This book is very well written and reader friendly. It is full of scientific facts and names but these are presented in a very readable and at times humorous fashion. I found the information in this book fascinating and useful. It is nice to know where some of our medications come from (even if it is gross!). The author gives us hope that there are drugs out there that may be found to help treat some of our most debilitating and deadly diseases. But he does stress throughout the book that we must conserve our natu

Medicine Quest is a feast for the mind which I devoured in one sitting. A compelling storyteller, Mark Plotkin interweaves his personal experiences as an ethnobotanist with the most fascinating scientific developments of our day with a clear-eyed view of history. It's something like sitting at the foot of a great teacher, who engages our jaded minds with his vivid and intricate love of creation, and who regales us with outrageous tales of a life spent roaming the jungles of the Americas. Though the material presented here is often scholarly, it is never dense. Most importantly, Plotkin reminds us to be humble in the face of Nature's magnificence. In an era of environmental devastation and mass extinction, we may destroy that which we are looking for even before we find it. Mark teaches us that only a fool throws away something he doesn't understand - and that we, in our arrogance, are behaving very much like fools. After you read this book, give it to a teenager. Who knows what rich life of wonder it might inspire in those just starting their lives?