The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef

"This book presents a structural approach to the evaluation of herbal medicinal products for quality, safety and efficacy. There has been an enormous growth in the market for herbal medicinal products in the last twenty five years. However the rediscovery of natural substances with therapeutic potential has raised questions of quality, safety and efficacy on the part of the consumer and also from health professionals. This book brings together current thinking and practice in these areas highlighting current research. In the light of increasing legislation to enforce better standards for these products and the demand by legislators and the public for assurance of safe and effective use, this book seeks to provide a state-of-the-art review, which informs and guides those who seek to promote their use. This book also gives an overview of the place of ethno pharmacology in the development of herbal medicinal products and discusses good agricultural and collection practices, marker analysis and stability testing which contribute to assessment of good quality of these materials." -- Publisher description.

Healthcare professionals, including doctors, pharmacists and nurses, are often confronted with patients who use over-the-counter (OTC) herbal medicinal products and food supplements. While taking responsibility for one’s own health and treatment options is encouraged, many patients use these products based on limited (and sometimes inaccurate) information from non-scientific sources, such as the popular press and internet. There is a clear need to offer balanced, well-informed advice to patients, yet a number of studies have shown that, generally, conventionally trained health practitioners consider their knowledge about herbal medicinal products and supplements to be weak. Phytopharmacy fills this knowledge gap, and is intended for use by the busy pharmacist, nurse, or doctor, as well as the ‘expert patient’ and students of pharmacy and herbal medicine. It presents clear, practical and concise monographs on over a hundred popular herbal medicines and plant-based food supplements. Information provided in each monograph includes: • Indications • Summary and appraisal of clinical and pre-clinical evidence • Potential interactions • Contraindications • Possible adverse effects An overview of the current regulatory framework is also outlined, notably the EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive. This stipulates that only licensed products or registered traditional herbal medicinal products (THRs), which have assured quality and safety, can now legally be sold OTC. Monographs are included of most of the major herbal ingredients found in THRs, and also some plant-based food supplements, which while not strictly medicines, may also have the potential to exert a physiological effect.

This book series gives a comprehensive overview of the adverse effects of botanical medicines. It provides introductory information on Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Uses, followed by an Adverse Reaction Profile subdivided according to organ and function. The third contribution to the series gives important information about eighteen specific medicinal herbs and important plant constituents. The herbs and constituents have been selected for several reasons, such as a prominent place in phytotherapy, clinical expectations about therapeutic potential and recent concern about a serious adverse reaction. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen) has supported the book in the form of an acknowledgement that has been prepared by this Office.

Evidence-Based Validation of Herbal Medicines: Translational Research on Botanicals brings together current thinking and practice in the characterization and validation of natural products. The book describes different approaches and techniques for evaluating the quality, safety and efficacy of herbal medicine, particularly methods to assess their activity and understand compounds responsible and their probable underlying mechanisms of action. This book brings together the views, expertise and experiences of scientific experts in the field of medicinal plant research, hence it will be useful for researcher who want to know more about the natural lead with their validation and also useful to exploit traditional medicines. - Includes state-of-the-art methods for detecting, isolating and performing structure elucidation by degradation and spectroscopic techniques - Highlights the trends in validation and value addition of herbal medicine with different scientific approaches used in therapeutics - Contains several all-new chapters on topics such as traditional-medicine-inspired drug development to treat emerging viral diseases, medicinal plants in antimicrobial resistance, TLC bio profiling, botanicals as medicinal foods, bioprospecting and bioassay-guided isolation of medicinal plants, immunomodulators from medicinal plants, and more

The deregulation of dietary supplements and natural products marketing by the FDA has widened the natural products market in Europe and worldwide. While the discussion about the validity of the plant approach to nutrition and diseases treatment continues, the explosion of the use of whatever is considered "natural" has generated concern about effec