Grow Your Own Drugs

Product Description
Whether you're struggling with insomnia, the kids have eczema, or your partner is feeling under the weather, this book could have the answer. With easy recipes ethnobotanist James Wong shows how to make simple creams, salves, teas and much, much more from the stuff growing in your window box, the local garden centre or in the hedgerows.

Using the flowers, fruit, roots, trees, vegetables and herbs that are all around us James provides preparations to help relieve a whole range of common conditions, including acne, anxiety, cold sores and general aches and pains - plus great ideas for beauty treats such as bath bombs and shampoos. Inspired by his grandmother in Malaysia who taught him about the health-giving properties of plants, James uses his top class academic knowledge to show how easy - and cheap - it is to make creams, lotions, lozenges and more which can help relieve the symptoms of a variety of common complaints.

The writer of "Grow Your Own Drugs" reveals how many plants contain the same active ingredients as over-the-counter drugs and chooses his Top 100 plants to grow or buy, complete with ideas for a whole range of uses. So unleash the power of plants and soothe the symptoms of everyday ailments the natural way. Grow Your Own Drugs!

About the Author
James Wong grew up in Malaysia and Singapore. He trained at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and gained an MSc in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent, graduating with distinction. His research has taken him to highland Ecuador, as well as to China and Java. He now lectures at the University of Kent and has also co-designed and built two RHS medal-winning gardens (in 2004 and 2008), which were designed to show that there is more to plants than ‘looking pretty’.

Comments on Grow Your Own Drugs

"Wow, I saw the TV show and could not resist buying the book. I hate taking drugs for my insomnia .. I tried the natural remedy prescribed by James in his book and I had the best night ever. This will be a reference book for all my family's ailments. If it cured my insomnia who knows what else it might do ! The book is so enjoyable and easy."

The TV Show Grow Your Own Drugs

A six-part programme that sees scientist James Wong using flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs, trees, roots and bulbs to make an eco-friendly medicine cabinet of creams, lotions and lozenges.

During the Grow Your Own Drugs series we find out that pine can be a natural deodorant and liquorice is brilliant for relieving coughs.

Watch the tv show on BBC iplayer

Grow Your Own Drugs Recipes

Visit the TimesOnline to see recipes for curing sore throats and head lice.

BUY: Grow Your Own Drugs