A comprehensive review of over 2,000 species of plants employed in indigenous African medicine, this book provides a concise description of the materia medica of an enormous and extensively varied continent. It includes a detailed pharmacognostical profile of 170 of the major herbs, including the common name, synonyms, African names, habitat and distribution, medicinal uses, chemical constituents, and published pharmacologic activity. The profiles are presented in both alphabetic order and according to family. The book also provides an introduction to African traditional medicine.

Maurice M. Iwu (M. Pharm., Ph.D. Bradford) was a professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a senior research associate at the Division of Experimental Therapeutics of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. He is the founder and chairman of the Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme (BDCP), the International Centre for Ethnomedicine and Drug Development (InterCEDD), and Intercedd Health Products. He is a member of the board of directors of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals (Formerly Pfizer Nigeria).

He has been Visiting Scholar to the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, University of Oxford (1980), Fulbright Senior Scholar Award (Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio and the Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York(1983);Senior Research Scholar Award, U.S. National Research Council, Washington D.C.(1993 - 1995) and the Richard Schultes International Prize for Ethnobiology(1999). He was awarded the Doctor of Letters (Honoraris Causa) of the Imo State University (2009).