The Plant Hunter: A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicines

Plants are the basis for an array of lifesaving and health-improving medicines we all now take for granted. In today's world of synthetic pharmaceuticals, scientists and laypeople alike have lost this connection to the natural world. But by ignoring the potential of medicinal plants, we are losing out on the opportunity to discover new life-saving medicines. No one understands this better than Dr. Cassandra Quave, whose groundbreaking research as a leading medical ethnobotanist — someone who identifies and studies plants that may be able to treat antimicrobial resistance and other threatening illnesses — is helping to provide clues for the next generation of advanced medicines.

In The Plant Hunter, Dr. Quave weaves together science, botany, and memoir to tell us the extraordinary story of her own journey. Traveling by canoe, ATV, mule, airboat, and on foot, she has conducted field research in the flooded forests of the remote Amazon, the murky swamps of southern Florida, the rolling hills of central Italy, isolated mountaintops in Albania and Kosovo, and volcanic isles arising out of the Mediterranean. And as a person born with multiple congenital defects of her skeletal system, she's done it all with just one leg. Filled with grit, tragedy, triumph, awe, and scientific discovery, her story illuminates how the path forward for medical discovery may be found in nature's oldest remedies.

No results found.