I found this book in the Nature section of of a Barnes and Noble bookstore after reading about it in the latest Time magazine special edition (Fall, 1997, Heroes of Medicine, is the title, I believe). The Time special edition had an article about Dr. Paul Alan Cox and his work identifying medicinal plants used by indigenous peoples and his work to save the Samoan rain forests.

Since Dr. Cox is LDS and makes some mention of the church throughout the book, I think is would be classified as Mormon literature by list members.

Dr. Cox is a world-class ethnobotanist, Dean of General Education and Honors and Professor of Botany at BYU, King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor of Environmental Science, author of the Scientific American Library book Plants, People, and Culture, and recipient of a 1997 Goldman Environmental Prize -- the equivalent of a "Nobel Prize in the Environment". He served a mission in Samoa before the events in the book took place.

Nafanua describes the experiences of Dr. Cox in Samoa where he has done research on medicinal plants used by indigneous "healers" including the identification of an antiviral plant extract called prostratin that is being tested in AIDS treatment. He also played a key role in the creation of a park in Samoa saving the Samoan rain forest from logging, and a key role in saving the endangered flying foxes that live in rain forests in that area.

I found the book extremely interesting and well-written for a man with a background in scientific research. There is some science in it, but it is explained in ways that I think are compatible with general readers without scientific backgrounds. His methods that led to the discovery of prostatin and some other medicines from plants have the potential of becoming a very important drug development strategy -- and a very, very good argument for conserving forests and plants as sources of medications. The description of the Samoan culture, the land, and his work there were quite fascinating. He also describes how his family and Samoan villagers survived a devastating tropical storm.

My only complaint about the book is that in some cases, follow-up information on some of the people was not given. I wanted to know what happened to the BYU student who was with his family during the storm, for example.

Mike Adams