Caper ─ The Genus Capparis

This book covers the use of the caper bush, its fruit and its flowers as a culinary article of economic importance from ancient times to current applications. The text explores the particular role of this bush in mythological and religious thinking along with advances in modern chemical and pharmacological research. In addition to reviewing ethnomedical usage in previous times, the authors provide practical discussions of how the unique evolution of the bush impacts present and future applications of the Capparis species for medicine and therapeutic nutrition.

Ephraim Philip Lansky, MD (University of Pennsylvania), PhD (Leiden University), MBA (University of Bradford), BA (New College, Sarasota, Florida), is the author or coauthor of 28 peer-reviewed publications, five patents, and two books (Pomegranate: The Most Medicinal Fruit, Basic Books, New York; and Figs: the Genus Ficus, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL). He is also the founder of Rimonest Limited and Punisyn Pharmaceuticals Limited, companies devoted to the economic development of the pomegranate fruit for nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and medical applications, respectively. He has 30 years of clinical experience in acupuncture, herbology, homeopathy, and hypnosis. He directs the Laboratory of Applied Metabolomics and Pharmacognosy (LAMP) within the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel, and maintains an international consulting practice in complementary medicine and pharmacognosy.

Shifra Lansky holds a BSc in chemistry from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, where she is presently pursuing her graduate studies. Her focus is on characterizing the three-dimensional structures of naturally occurring proteins. Shifra enjoys playing the violin, painting, and skiing in her spare time.

Helena Paavilainen is a researcher at the Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Her main research interests are ethnomedicine, historical ethnopharmacology, and the history of pharmacology, especially the Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin traditions. She wrote her PhD thesis (published as "Medieval Pharmacotherapy: Continuity and Change; Case Studies from Ibn Sina and Some of His Late Medieval Commentators," Leiden: Brill 2009) on the development of medical drug therapy in medieval times and on the potential validity of medieval herbal treatments. She also coauthored with Dr. Lansky the monograph Figs: The Genus Ficus (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010). She currently works as a freelance consultant bioprospecting ancient and medieval herbal texts for practical applications in medicine, functional nutrition, and agriculture.