Dynamic Gemmotherapy, Beyond Gemmotherapy Volumes I and II

Dr. Joe Rozencwajg has long been recognised as a respected pioneer in the study of Gemmotherapy extracts. He has earned this place over the past decade or more through his steadfast dedication to the sharing of his clinical experiences on this subject. His first book Dynamic Gemmotherapy and subsequent volumes were groundbreaking. The only comparable works include Prof. Fernando Pitera's 2003 Compendiu de Gemmotherapie Clinic and later in 2012 Phytembryotherapy and The Embryo of Gemmotherapy by Franck Ledoux and Gérard Guéniot. While remarkably extensive, Pitera's Compendiu is sadly only available today in Italian and Romanian. Ledoux and Guéniot's work is in fact in English and presented beautifully but is lacking in depth.

Today, with Dynamic Gemmotherapy, Beyond Gemmotherapy, Rozencwajg gifts his readers with a fourth edition that includes Volumes I and II totalling 795 pages. A scholar from the start, Rozencwajg begins with a deep dive into the history and elementary principles of Gemmotherapy. A resource such as this on Gemmotherapy extracts is rare in the English language. He then presents an extensive overview of 55 extracts. Rozencwajg employs a multidimensional approach, making the book highly accessible to practitioners from a variety of backgrounds and allows him a unique standing among colleagues in this field of study.

Looking at one example, Ribes nigrum, a frequently used extracts, one will learn the following:

• Type of plant.

• Uses in herbalism.

• Gemmotherapic indications.

• Clinic activity.

• Frequently used combination.

• A note on contraindications.

• Abstracts from recent research and publications.

This format is then performed for the remaining 54 extracts providing readers with an extensive summary.

In Volume II, he offers a therapeutic index that is based ‘partly on the clinical experience of Dr. Bergeret and Dr. Tetau’, as well of his own personal clinical experience. While sharing protocols straight from Bergeret and Tetau, Rozencwajg states, ‘I did, in fact, test most of them, adding other remedies of techniques that are not described and creating a few associations of my own that are as usual aimed at one specific patient’.

Volume II also includes 76 dedicated pages to a Clinical Integrated Repertory, with an extensive list of conditions and known indicated extracts.

Early on, with his first edition Rozencwajg claimed the term Dynamic Gemmotherapy and explains the meaning here:

‘Why “Dynamic Gemmotherapy”? All the books and references I consulted and used over time have in common that they do not relate the gemmotherapic indications to the other ways of practising medicine that use the same plants; in doing so, the scope of the remedies becomes limited, too narrow instead of being integrative, as should be expected from the notion that buds contain the whole potential of the adult plant’.

And now with this fourth edition, he has expanded the title to include the phrase, Beyond Gemmotherapy, because, according to Rozencwajg he now, ‘discusses the new enlarged, exciting, and I would even say enhanced approach to remedies and therapies’.

There is no hiding in Dr Rozencwajg's enthusiasm and passion as well as his strong opinions regarding the study and application of plant medicine. Readers will either embrace his familiar tone and explanations or possibly find them off putting.

While Rozencwajg set out to achieve quite a lofty goal with the compilation all he knows to be true about each extract and the plant it derives, he certainly has met success.

As practitioners who use Gemmotherapy extracts in our daily practice, teachers, and authors, Rozencwajg and I address two different audiences in our books. Rozencwajg makes a clear choice to write directly to the practitioner with his foreword even warning against the use of this information by the untrained public:

‘If you are not a health practitioner and you want to use this book for yourself or somebody else, you do that at your own risk and under your own responsibility. Would you buy a textbook of surgery and remove your own gallbladder?

I have instead, in Gemmotherapy for Everyone: Building Immunity in Babies and Children, made it my aim to educate and empower parents and caregivers. I see an incredible potential for Gemmotherapy extracts to be used in every home as an alternative to the frequently used harsh over-the-counter medications so popular in the United States. I also see clearly the incredible untapped potential of Gemmotherapy extracts in the practice of today's homeopath. The ability to resolve symptoms by merely optimising of elimination in clients makes homeopathic prescribing all the more precise and successful.

As a passionate proponent of Gemmotherapy, I am grateful for the contributions Dr. Rozencwajg continues to make.