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Page xi
Introduction
"First aid" to most people conjures up an image of splints and bandagesone of paramedics administering emergency treatment or of unpleasant accidents. This is not a book that will tell you how to set a fracture, bandage a sprain, or apply a tourniquet. It is about everyday plantskitchen vegetables as well as more conventional medicinal herbsthat can be used to cope with the commonplace ailments that send us reaching into the household medicine chest. It is about herbal alternatives to over-the-counter cough drops, painkillers, or other patent remedies and aims to highlight a few of the many ways in which we can use familiar plants. If you have nothing more on hand than a few apples, a cabbage, a jar of honey, and an onion, then you will have a good selection of remedies to cope with many of the family's minor ailments. Add to that a jar of marigold or tea tree cream, homeopathic arnica tablets, a few slippery elm capsules, lavender oiland a good selection of bandagesand you can handle almost any emergency.

 
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