Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke

Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine

Marcello Pennacchio, Lara Jefferson, Kayri Havens, and Illustrated by David Sollenberger

The first global compendium of plants smoked by humans for medicinal, religious, recreational and other purposes

Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke

Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine

Marcello Pennacchio, Lara Jefferson, Kayri Havens, and Illustrated by David Sollenberger

Description

Plants provide the food, shelter, medicines, and biomass that underlie sustainable life. One of the earliest and often overlooked uses of plants is the production of smoke, dating to the time of early hominid species. Plant-derived smoke has had an enormous socio-economic impact throughout human history, being burned for medicinal and recreational purposes, magico-religious ceremonies, pest control, food preservation, and flavoring, perfumes, and incense.

This illustrated global compendium documents and describes approximately 2,000 global uses for over 1,400 plant species. The Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke is accessibly written and provides a wealth of information on human uses for smoke. Divided into nine main categories of use, the compendium lists plant-derived smoke's medicinal, historical, ceremonial, ritual and recreational uses. Plant use in the production of incense and to preserve and flavor foods and beverages is also included. Each entry includes full binomial names and family, an identification of the person who named the plant, as well as numerous references to other scholarly texts. Of particular interest will be plants such as Tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum), Boswellia spp (frankincense), and Datura stramonium (smoked as a treatment for asthma all over the world), all of which are described in great detail.

Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke

Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine

Marcello Pennacchio, Lara Jefferson, Kayri Havens, and Illustrated by David Sollenberger

Foreword
Preface and acknowledgments
Introduction
Fire and Smoke
Medicinal Uses for Plant-derived Smoke
Purification
Evil and Medicine
Magico-religious and Ceremonial Uses
Incense
Incense producing plants
Recreational Uses
Assassinations
Pest Control
Perfumes, Flavoring and Preservation
Veterinary uses
Toxic and obnoxious smoke
Smoke signals
Bibliography
Glossary
Index of scientific names
Subject index

Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke

Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine

Marcello Pennacchio, Lara Jefferson, Kayri Havens, and Illustrated by David Sollenberger

Author Information

Marcello Pennacchio is an ethnobotanist with more than twelve years of experience in research and teaching in this area. He has published many peer-reviewed journal articles on traditional Australian Aboriginal uses for plants, with special emphasis on those considered useful for treating heart-related diseases. His current research interests include plants that can be smoked for medicinal and other purposes.
Lara V. Jefferson is a restoration ecologist. She too has written scholarly journal articles and has presented her work at various conferences all over the world. Her main research interests are invasive plant species and using smoke to promote seed germination.

Kayri Havens is the Medard and Elizabeth Welch Director of the Division for Plant Biology and Conservation at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Dr Havens has also written scholarly journal articles and recently co-authored and co-edited a book on conservation, titled Ex-situ Plant Conservation (Island Press).

Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke

Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine

Marcello Pennacchio, Lara Jefferson, Kayri Havens, and Illustrated by David Sollenberger

Reviews and Awards

"A distinctive, excellent resource for a specialized topic. Readers who think that plant smoke is just for inhaling intoxicants will be surprised by the breadth of human uses of smoke derived from plants, such as seed germination, pest control, and veterinary medicine. Academic libraries supporting programs in areas such as agriculture, ethnobotany, history, cosmetics, and medicine may benefit from this thoroughly researched volume." -- Choice

"A fascinating excursion. This book demonstrates that there's a lot more to smoke created from plant material than just nicotine and narcotics. Although this book remains morally neutral on the rights and wrongs of smoking various substances, it goes some way towards countering the view that plant smoke is always a bad thing."--Green Prophet

"The list of plants presented through the authors extensive literature search is a valuable entity. Perhaps this book's greatest contribution will be in its ability to stimulate research into identification of phytochemicals in a plant's smoke responsible for its ethnobotanical uses." -- Robert J. Krueger, Ferris St. University, Economic Botany