Practical Materia Medica of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah

Lev (public health, U. of Haifa) and Amar (archaeology, Bar Ilan U.) have searched through discarded books deposited in a synagogue in Cairo from about the 10th to the 19th centuries to find references on medical plants and other substances from the region. The information was gathered from many sources over many centuries, and their goal here is to identify which herbs and materials were actually used, rather than those identified merely from tradition or theory. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)