When Nicole Maxwell first visited the Amazon more than forty years ago, she had no idea that she would make a life's work of the people, plants and lore to be found there. Decades before Americans became aware of the riches to be found in the knowledge of plant medicines which native shamans had passed down over thousands of years, Ms. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon ram forest for clues to this ancient medical tradition.

Now, on the eve of the decade in which mankind will have its last chance to determine the fate of this region and its wealth of traditional knowledge, Citadel Press's Library of the Mystic Arts is proud to bring out a newly revised edition of this classic work. Long hailed as one of the major works of popular ethno-medicine, this book is both an engaging adventure story and an engrossing account of the traditions of plant medicine to be found among the tribes of Amazonia — and its re-release could not be more timely.

Scientists now fear that one plant species per day is being made extinct by man's ravenous appetite for "progress". Of the plants which are found only in the Amazon rain forest, only a tiny percentage have been tested for their full medical possibilities. Witch-Doctor's Apprentice is an inspiring and amusing plea to modern civilization to save these plants — and the people who know how to use them — before they are destroyed forever.

On the occasion of this newly revised edition, Ms. Maxwell has created an appendix which catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a newintroduction by the noted ethno-botanist Terence McKenna.

"A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts and dangers, the beauty of the jungle and the arc-leap of wordless communication across cultural barriers, as it is about... bringing natural medicines of the Amazon to the investigative attention of modern medicine...an odd and wonderful original...fresh, immediate, personal and individual, unfiltered through preconception or ideology, distance or hypothesis.

"Maxwell is a pioneer, one of those rare people who make important ideas out of the raw stuff of experience, as a sticky plant sap might be boiled down to make a valuable medicine". — Annie Gottlieb, The New York Times

"As an explorer of the region where Maxwell travelled, I found Witch-Doctor's Apprentice delightful and refreshing...outstanding in its humbleness, its unassuming awe of the tropics, and its honesty. Nicole Maxwell has done both the scientist and the layman a favor...bringing to the singularly uniformed American public some idea of the reservoir of medical lore still unstudied in the world's hinterlands". — Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D. Professor of Biology and Director, Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Emeritus

When Nicole Maxwell first visited the Amazon more than forty years ago, she had no idea that she would make a life's work of the people, plants and lore to be found there. Decades before Americans became aware of the riches to be found in the knowledge of plant medicines which native shamans had passed down over thousands of years, Ms. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon ram forest for clues to this ancient medical tradition.

Now, on the eve of the decade in which mankind will have its last chance to determine the fate of this region and its wealth of traditional knowledge, Citadel Press's Library of the Mystic Arts is proud to bring out a newly revised edition of this classic work. Long hailed as one of the major works of popular ethno-medicine, this book is both an engaging adventure story and an engrossing account of the traditions of plant medicine to be found among the tribes of Amazonia — and its re-release could not be more timely.

Scientists now fear that one plant species per day is being made extinct by man's ravenous appetite for progress. Of the plants which are found only in the Amazon rain forest, only a tiny percentage have been tested for their full medical possibilities. Witch-Doctor's Apprentice is an inspiring and amusing plea to modern civilization to save these plants — and the people who know how to use them — before they are destroyed forever.

On the occasion of this newly revised edition, Ms. Maxwell has created an appendix which catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a newintroduction by the noted ethno-botanist Terence McKenna.

A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts and dangers, the beauty of the jungle and the arc-leap of wordless communication across cultural barriers, as it is about... bringing natu

Nicole Maxwell first visited the Amazon in search of medicinal plant lore more than 40 years ago. Her engrossing adventure story is an inspiring plea for civilization to save the plants and people who know how to use them before they are destroyed forever. For this newly revised edition, Maxwell catalogues plants mentioned in the text and their medicinal uses.