The Pharmacy of the Sacred Forest: Phytotherapy and etnobotany in The Gambia (Gambia Legacy Plants) Paperback – April 22, 2025

For generations, nature has been the healer of our ancestors, providing remedies hidden within the forests, wetlands, and savannahs of The Gambia. This book is more than a book, it is a Journey into the wisdom of traditional healing, passed down through the ages.Rooted in the knowledge of my grandfather, Babucarr Manneh, this work seeks to preserve and celebrate the rich heritage of Gambian Plant Medicine. It is a tribute to healers, herbalists, and elders who have safeguarded this knowledge, ensuring its survival amid modern advancements.This book serves as both a guide and a call to action. It not only documents the medicinal properties of our native flora but also highlights the urgent need to protect our environment. As deforestation, climate change, and industrialization threaten our natural resources, we must recognize that the loss of plants is not just an ecological crisis - it is a loss of culture, history and health.Through this work, I hope to inspire a renewed appreciation for our natural heritage, bridging the gap between traditional knowledge and contemporary science. May this book empower individuals to embrace the healing power of nature and become stew-ards of the land that sustain us all.Malang Sambou MannehAfrica seems to be left behind in many concepts, and one of them is the study of medicinal plants; and I say the study, because in regard to the quantity and variety of plant species with medicinal interest, it is the continent that offers more and more varied hopes of finding new species and new uses for plants, in addition to collecting the usual uses of ethnomedicine.The Gambia is a small country, the smallest in Africa, whose name derives from the great river that runs through it from east to west and that flows into the sea, which marks its habitat and its flora.Various habitats can be distinguished such as the coast, mangroves, wetlands, croplands, semi-arid savanna, gallery forests, etc.In this work we try to unify the most technical concept of Gambian phytotherapy provided by Josep Lluís Berdonces with the ancestral and current knowledge provided by Malang Sambou Manneh, a great connoisseur of the local flora and a family of healers.The illustrations and photos of the plants do not always correspond to the indicated Gambian flora, but when this is missing, an illustration of the same genus is included (genus = sp).Plants have been classified alphabetically by their most accepted scientific name. Sometimes more than one species is cited in the same chapter.The similarity of the tropical flora of Africa, America and the Indian subcontinent means that many plants are shared, not always of the same species. That is why the traditional uses of these plants in different cultures have been included, especially from the Philippines, India and South America.Special emphasis has been placed on naming the plants in the different Gambian languages (Mandinka, Wolof, Jola, Fula, Serehule and English).I am grateful to "Amb les teves Mans" GNO (With your hands), and very specially to the Rotary Club of Costa Brava for their philanthropic action for the people of The Gambia, which facilitated this magical meeting and the creation of this book.Enjoy it!Dr. Josep Lluís Berdonces Read more