Title: Hot Plants – Nature’s Proven Sex Boosters for Men and Women
Author: Chris Kilham
Publisher: St.Martin’s Griffin (www.stmartins.com)
ISBN: 0-312-31539-2
No. of Pages: 208
Genre: Non-fiction, Health, Herbalism

Hot Plants is Chris Kilham’s account of exploration of plants, which help men and women lead better sex lives and thus enjoy better health. The author is a medicine hunter, author and educator and is the Explorer in Residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he teaches ethnobotany. He has written a dozen books, four of which are listed in side the book.

In this particular book, Chris explores about 10 medicinal plants including some like Aswagandha, Yohimbe and Ginseng, which have been well known all over the world and a few lesser known (to me atleast). He describes for each plant, the active part, the location, the scientific studies conducted if any and the views of the traditional doctors, herbalists and the users. He has tried almost all of them himself and thus what he writes can certainly be taken as authentic. He also gives the side effects for some of the plants where applicable. He finishes the book with a very engaging account of the benefits of chocolate, not from the erotic angle but from the angle of love and bonding. His writing style is engaging and the accounts of his wide ranging travels and his experiences with people of various civilizations makes the book an interesting read.

He got a few Indian names wrong (he refers to Dr.Prabhakaran as Dr.Prabakhan and Vata as Vatta), which I hope he will correct in future editions. His perception of the Hindu Gods Krishna and Siva may offend orthodox Hindus and fundamentalists. The conversion of temperatures by the author from Centigrade (Celsius) scale to Fahrenheit scale is approximate at some places. The special feature of -40 degrees in the temperature scale (that -40 F and -40 C are exactly equal) does not come through in the book.

The book would have been certainly more valuable if a few photographs of the plants were included. The author’s recommendations at the end will be certainly useful to those who would like to try out these plants as a good substitute for Viagra and Cialis etc.