Earth Persona

This is an informal, illustrated guide to a wealth of visual and written information on Chinese herbs and medicinals.


Cathy J. Cameron, a longtime Oriental Medicine practitioner, highlights the properties and uses of an array of herbs and medicinals. She describes them as having personalities and creates caricatures to relax the mind. This facilitates the retention of information by using mnemonic techniques.


Color keys indicate various properties and channels, such as the stomach, liver, small intestine, kidney, and heart. Homophones are used along with images to facilitate memorization and learning.


Experts on memory have suggested that word association is effective for building memory, i.e., using similar sounds, root words and descriptive concepts around names when in conversation. In this book, more technical explanatory text also accompanies each herb person. Colloquial names are given in addition to the Latin, English, and Chinese Pinyin names.


Although designed to support learning for Oriental Medicine students, the laypersons will also add to their knowledge in Earth Persona.