Medicinal Plants of Brazil is a synthesis of our knowledge of the medicinal and pharmacological utilization of approximately 1,500 species and varieties of plants occurring in 149 families of lichens, fern allies, gymnosperms (conifers and cycads) and flowering plants. They represent a diverse vegetational heritage of the richly endowed tropical nation of Brazil. A wide selection of plants from such habitats as the semiarid woodlands of the Northeast, the vast Amazonian rain forest populated by Ameridian tribes and agricultural settlers and the savannas of the Mato Grosso.

A cooperative effort by three Brazilians, Walter Mors ( a natural products chemist) Carlos Toledo Rizziine ( plant taxonomist) and Nuno Alvares Pereira ( a pharmacologist), the book distills knowledge gained over decades of their informed research.