Alchemy & Herbalists and Spells & Magic are both 3.0, very early 3.0 . . . . Alchemy & Herbalists introduces a system for herbalism and alchemy that demands such investment, it will almost certainly dominate the campaign and be an enormous sink for any alchemist character. It's unfortunate, then, that the alchemy is piddly from level 1 to 20. If you strip away all of the feats and skills and retool the costs, you are left with some interesting items. You are left with many more poorly designed items and rules misunderstandings, such as pastes that give objects +2 to Fortitude saves against fire.
It's clear that the book was written with love, but not with a love for the d20 system.