{"product_id":"bitter-roots-the-search-for-healing-plants-in-africa-by-abena-dove-osseo-asare","title":"Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa by Abena Dove Osseo-Asare","description":"\u003cp\u003eISBN: 9780226086026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eUniversity of Chicago Press, January 2014\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e300 pages, Paperback\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor over a century, plant specialists worldwide have sought to transform healing plants in African countries into pharmaceuticals. And for equally as long, conflicts over these medicinal plants have endured, from stolen recipes and toxic tonics to unfulfilled promises of laboratory equipment and usurped personal patents. In \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBitter Roots\u003c\/span\u003e, Abena Dove Osseo-Asare draws on publicly available records and extensive interviews with scientists and healers in Ghana, Madagascar, and South Africa to interpret how African scientists and healers, rural communities, and drug companies—including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Unilever—have sought since the 1880s to develop drugs from Africa’s medicinal plants.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOsseo-Asare recalls the efforts to transform six plants into pharmaceuticals: rosy periwinkle, Asiatic pennywort, grains of paradise, \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eStrophanthus\u003c\/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eCryptolepis\u003c\/span\u003e, and \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eHoodia\u003c\/span\u003e. Through the stories of each plant, she shows that herbal medicine and pharmaceutical chemistry have simultaneous and overlapping histories that cross geographic boundaries. At the same time, Osseo-Asare sheds new light on how various interests have tried to manage the rights to these healing plants and probes the challenges associated with assigning ownership to plants and their biochemical components.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA fascinating examination of the history of medicine in colonial and postcolonial Africa, \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBitter Roots\u003c\/span\u003e will be indispensable for scholars of Africa; historians interested in medicine, biochemistry, and society; and policy makers concerned with drug access and patent rights.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"I H Pentz Booksellers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47546150224034,"sku":null,"price":650.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0364\/4047\/3732\/files\/61WPoEmu3jL._SY342.jpg?v=1787217043","url":"https:\/\/pentzbooks.co.za\/products\/bitter-roots-the-search-for-healing-plants-in-africa-by-abena-dove-osseo-asare","provider":"I H Pentz Booksellers","version":"1.0","type":"link"}