Amazon.com (ISBN 0806511745, Paperback)

This memoir of travels in the Amazon has an agreeable twist: Nicole Maxwell was hunting for medicinal plants with the triple goal of conserving the jungle, improving the lot of humanity and having a great deal of fun. Her tales span countries and decades, as we watch her mature from an enthusiastic if somewhat naive idealist to a true trouper. Despite setbacks and disillusionment, she never lost sight of her goal, and lived to see others pick up the task of cultivating important medicinal plants and knowledge, and further her cause of preserving the jungle through wiser use.