This book focuses on natural products, in particular medicinal plants and their derived products, as an indispensable source of bioactive molecules that serve as either drug candidates or lead compounds for drug design and discovery . There are several advantages for plant-derived therapeutics, including wide availability, diverse pharmacological actions, and a generally good profile of safety and tolerability. Over the recent years, there have been numerous reports from clinical studies testifying the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants and phytochemicals in treating human diseases. A plethora of basic studies has also unraveled molecular mechanisms underlying the health benefits of herbal medicines. Nevertheless, issues such as identification of bioactive ingredients, standardization of the products, and drug interactions remain to be systematically documented. Bioprospecting of Tropical Medicinal Plants represents a comprehensive analysis of natural products, mainly medicinal plants and phytochemicals. It includes detailed medicinal properties and pharmacological action from in vitro models to clinical trials. The goal is to present the readers a carefully curated collection of plant-derived natural products and their underlying molecular mechanisms.

This book focuses on natural products, in particular medicinal plants and their derived products, as an indispensable source of bioactive molecules that serve as either drug candidates or lead compounds for drug design and discovery . There are several advantages for plant-derived therapeutics, including wide availability, diverse pharmacological actions, and a generally good profile of safety and tolerability. Over the recent years, there have been numerous reports from clinical studies testifying the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants and phytochemicals in treating human diseases. A plethora of basic studies has also unraveled molecular mechanisms underlying the health benefits of herbal medicines. Nevertheless, issues such as identification of bioactive ingredients, standardization of the products, and drug interactions remain to be systematically documented. Bioprospecting of Tropical Medicinal Plants represents a comprehensive analysis of natural products, mainly medicinal plants and phytochemicals. It includes detailed medicinal properties and pharmacological action from in vitro models to clinical trials. The goal is to present the readers a carefully curated collection of plant-derived natural products and their underlying molecular mechanisms.

This book opens readers' eyes to the enormous resources of the Earth's rain forests and the potential impact of their destruction in terms of human health.

The book entitled Medicinal Plants and Natural Product Research describes various aspects of ethnopharmacological uses of medicinal plants; extraction, isolation, and identification of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants; various aspects of biological activity such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, immunomodulatory activity, etc., as well as characterization of plant secondary metabolites as active substances from medicinal plants.

First published in 1986, this book describes the most important medicinal plants in tropical West Africa and similar humid tropical climates. After a short introduction about early traditional medicine, the bulk of the book gives an account of locally occurring plants, grouped by their medicinal actions. Plants that affect the cardiovascular and nervous systems are discussed, as are those with antibiotic, insecticidal and molluscicidal properties. Those which affect the hormonal systems of humans are catalogued and so are others that act as adrenal-cortex, sex and thyroid hormones. There is a full botanical index, which includes the commonly found synonyms for many of the plants and the work is illustrated by the author's own water colours. It may be of particular interest and use to pharmacists, biochemists, botanists and pharmacologists and of great value to those who exploit locally available resources in treating diseases in tropical areas.

The selection of plants studied in this treatise is based on its significance, and its representation of members of different taxonomic families as well as of different classes (and subclasses) of compounds. All the available data on the chemical compounds and the pharmacological studies on these plants/compounds have been incorporated. The plants