The title well describes this compendium of more than 250 common illnesses and the 750 Chinese patent herbal remedies that the layperson can use to treat them. After a minimal introduction to the principles of Chinese medicine, Joiner, a certified acupuncturist and herbalist who is affiliated with a Chinese herbal mail-order company, organizes the text alphabetically by ailment.

A description of each medical condition is followed by recommended dosages of Chinese herbal patent remedies, which may or may not include a list of herbal ingredients. Cautions for pregnant women are included, along with recommendations that readers consult their physicians prior to remedy use, but cautions on individual herbs are not provided. The end matter consists of several indexes to illnesses and remedies, but individual herbs are not indexed.

While the list of ailments and recommended Chinese herbal patent remedies is extensive, the manual does not address the individual herbs that combine to make up a patent formula. Thus, this volume would work best when paired with another containing a Chinese pharmacopoeia, such as David Molony's The American Association of Oriental Medicine's Complete Guide to Chinese Herbal Medicine (Berkley, 1998), Michael Tierra's The Way of Chinese Herbs (Pocket, 1998), or Dan Bensky's Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica (Eastland Pr., 1993). Recommended for consumer health collections in public or academic libraries, though those interested in the individual herbs and in a more extensive explanation of Chinese medicine will want to combine it with another title.