In the colonial history of Latin America, there exists a conspicuous scarcity of research concerning both the role of European missions in treating sickness among the indigenous populations and the marriage between the traditional European pharmacopoeia and foreign medicinal plants after the Encounter. This investigative shortage is difficult to comprehend, considering that during the early 1500s considerable progress was made in human anatomy and the medical sciences, and healing plants from Asia, Africa, and the Americas were incorporated into the European pharmacopoeia.
Fortunately, the new work by Sabine Schultheiss- Anagnostou about medical practices and the use of herbs and minerals from the New World during colonial times has widened our view on the subject and has contributed to filling this void. Written by a pharmacy historian, the study not only exposes advances in sixteenth- century Euro-pean pharmacology but also deals with the transcendental question of the humanitarian concerns of European...
