Based on forty years of clinical practice, Julian Barker formulates a number of interlocking ideas that integrate circadian physiology with the transformations that constitute human life. Taking knowledge, information, and data from various disciplines, he presents an integrative model of health, linking circadian biology with the psychosocial human being. He develops a theory that attempts to explain how medicinal plants modify human physiology and how they contribute to health. Aimed at the student acquiring knowledge and developing the skills to practise medicine as well as the qualified herbal practitioner, this thought-provoking work breaks new ground in health theory.

A detailed guide to understanding what is needed to effectively treat patients with herbal medicine Drawing on decades of experience, Julian Barker provides a comprehensive approach to the practice of herbalism, encompassing many of the problems a herbalist may encounter and offering advice on how they can help. Placing natural science at the forefront of its discussion, the initial section of Physic takes a wide-lens approach to exploring human biology, discussing the inner physiology of the human body, through concepts such as energy, movement, cycles and temperament. It also presents Barker’s concept of poise, which is the human ability to maintain an adaptive ratio. The book moves on, in part two, to consider the actual practice of herbalism, discussing important aspects of the interaction between herbalist and patient. Physic culminates in a discussion surrounding the influence of plants upon people, including an extensive Materia Medica. Physic provides a wealth of information regarding the needs of both the patient, and the practitioner who looks after them, solidifying it as a foundational textbook for students and practitioners of herbal medicine for years to come.

Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the “scientific methods”. Current research on drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in the search for compounds, which act on a key enzyme or a subset of receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of preparative procedures. Research scientists should therefore arm themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2 deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of herbal medicine. Specifically, it focuess on the secondary metabolic compounds, which afford protection against diseases. Lastly, Volume 3 discusses the physiological mechanisms by which the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners, and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.

This volume looks at the importance of medicinal plants and their potential benefits for human health, providing insight with scientific evidence on the use of functional foods in the treatment and management of certain diseases. Divided into four sections, the volume covers the assessment and identification of medicinal plants, the role of medicinal plants in disease management, the ethnobotany and phytochemistry of medicinal plants, and novel applications of plants. Assessment of Medicinal Plants for Human Health: Phytochemistry, Disease Management, and Novel Applications sheds light on the potential of certain plants and will be of value to faculty and advanced-level students of natural products, food science, pharmacognosy, pharmacology, and biochemistry. It will also be of interest to researchers in the area of drug discovery and development.

This volume showcases current ethnobiological accounts of the ways that people use plants to promote human health and well-being. The goal in this volume is to highlight some contemporary examples of how plants are central to various aspects of healthy environments and healthy minds and bodies. Authors employ diverse analytic frameworks, including: interpretive and constructivist, cognitive, political-ecological, systems theory, phenomenological, and critical studies of the relationship between humans, plants and the environment. The case studies represent a wide geographical range and explore the diversity in the health appeals of plants and herbs. The volume begins by considering how plants may intrinsically be ‘healthful’ and the notion that ecosystem health may be a literal concept used in contemporary efforts to increase awareness of environmental degradation. The book continues with the exploration of the ways in which medically-pluralistic societies demonstrate the entanglements between the environment, the state and its citizens. Profit driven models for the extraction and production of medicinal plant products are explored in terms of health equity and sovereignty. Some of the chapters in this volume work to explore medicinal plant knowledge and the globalization of medicinal plant knowledge. The translocal and global networks of medicinal plant knowledge are pivotal to productions of medicinal and herbal plant remedies that are used by people in all variety of societies and cultural groups. Humans produce health through various means and interact with our environments, especially plants, in order to promote health. The ethnographic accounts of people, plants, and health in this volume will be of interest to the fields of anthropology, biology and ethnobiology, as well as allied disciplines.

This volume sheds new light on the immense potential of medicinal plants for human health from different technological aspects. It presents new research on bioactive compounds in medicinal plants that provide health benefits, including those that have proven especially effective in treating and managing diabetes mellitus and hypertension. It looks at the medicinal properties, antioxidant capacity, and antimicrobial activity of plants and provides scientific evidence on the use of medicinal plants in the treatment of certain diseases. Many of the plants described in the chapters are easily accessible and are believed to be effective with fewer side effects in comparison to modern drugs in the treatment of different diseases.