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 conquerors regarding illness and pestilence among the subjected populations. The initial 100 pages are an appropriate introduction in which Schultheiss- Anagnostou handles the evolution of the medieval concepts of Christian caritas and misericordia and the new orientation these concepts took in modern times to include also care for the sick. From an earlier emphasis on conversions, the efforts of religious orders were now directed to the salvation of the souls as well as the bodies of those ravaged by European diseases and epidemics. Confronted with this grim reality, the religious orders started ministering to the corporal sufferings of the converted. Accordingly, the misiones established in the Americas by Dominicans, Augustinians, and Franciscans included dispensaries. With the involvement of the Jesuits in the late 1500s, the concept of mission acquired an even stronger humanitarian overtone. In the matrix churches of Santiago de Chile, Lima, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Concepción (Chile), Quito, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Salvador de Bahia, and Recife, missionary candidates were given instructions not only on evangelization but also on the setting up of pharmacies and the use of medicinal plants and minerals. In these centers were compiled the writings, scientific notes, and reports of healing practices; the centers also functioned as herbaria of native and introduced medicinal species. Even in remote locations, missions and dispensaries cultivated medicinal plants and herbs in their gardens. With only a small number of trained physicians in urban and regional centers, pharmacist priests were in great demand. The Jesuits, for example, who prided themselves on their natural scientists, disseminated among mission pharmacists written information on the curative properties of plants, fungi, and animal organs used by the indigenous populations or discovered by European naturalists.Not only do the author’s insights into the work of mission pharmacists in the New World widen our perspective on this matter, but the sources that she includes in the text shine a new light on health, quality of life, and death in the colonies. In the second part of her exhaustive survey, she spends more than 100 pages summarizing the contents of the seventeenth- and eighteenth- century writings that she consulted in German, Roman, Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, Argentine, Chilean, and Peruvian specialized archives and libraries. Moreover, the 50 pages of bibliographic references and the detailed list of medicinal plants in the appendix constitute a wealth of primary information for researchers in pharmacology and for colonial historians who may desire to further explore this field.Scouring through original documents and rare books, Schultheiss- Anagnostou compiled an inventory of plants whose medicinal properties were tapped by the pharmacists of religious orders. Among them are early descriptions of the attributes of quinine (Chinachinae), aguaribay balsam (Schinus molle), copaiba balsam (Copaifera), contrayerba (genus Dorstenia), palo de guaya (Guiacum officinalis), cocoa (Theobroma cacao), jalape (Exonium purga), apazote (Chenopodium ambrosoides), Peru balsam (Miloxyron balsa-mum), lozenge (Ruta spec.), tobacco (Nicotiana spec.), and numerous other plants from the medicinal heritage of Andean and Amazonian ethnic groups. To these newly discovered species, the Jesuit mission pharmacists added the legendary cure- all Roman the-riac (Theriaca Andromachi) known for its strong antidotal and stimulant powers, along with the cabalonga (Faba S. Ignatii) from the Philippines — named in honor of the order’s founder — whose berries were administered in cases of high fever and poisoning.In conclusion, this exhaustive work deserves both the highest praise for its rigorous investigative norms and recognition as a valuable contribution to the history of pharma copoeia in Latin America. Its significance for researchers in connate disciplines is such that one would strongly recommend the publication of this book also in Spanish or English for the benefit of a much broader audience.