Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the World for Aging: Botany, Ethnopharmacology, Natural Products, and Molecular Pathways provides an unprecedented comprehensive overview of more than 100 plants used globally as medicine with the potential to prevent premature aging. This handbook covers the pathophysiology of aging from the molecular and cellular to the organ levels, as well as the current state of knowledge about the modes of action of natural products from plants on the pathophysiological pathways related to the (i) cardiovascular system and metabolism, (ii) central nervous system, (iii) kidneys, (iv) bones, (v) skin and hair, and (vi) immune system. Medicinal plants are presented alphabetically. For each plant is indicated the botanical family, synonyms, and common names in English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. For each plant, the reader will also find the part used, active principles, medical history, contemporary medicinal uses, as well as pharmacological, clinical, and toxicological studies. The bibliographical references have been carefully selected for their relevance. This handbook is intended for medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dieticians, and nutritionists, as well as readers with interest in health food and herbs. FEATURES • Alphabetical presentation of over 100 medicinal plants and the pharmacological rationales for their uses for aging • Discusses the medical history, current medicinal uses, and potential candidates for the prevention of premature aging • Introduces the molecular mechanism of natural products on the pathophysiology of aging • Contains a selection of bibliographic references • A useful research tool for postgraduates, academics, and the pharmaceutical, herbal, or nutrition industries Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the World for Aging: Botany, Ethnopharmacology, Natural Products, and Molecular Pathways presents comment sections that invite further research and reflection on the fascinating and timely subject of herbals for healthy aging. This is an ideal reference text for medicinal plant enthusiasts.

Eating the flesh of an Egyptian mummy prevents the plague. Distilled poppies reduce melancholy. A Turkish drink called coffee increases alertness. Tobacco cures cancer. Such beliefs circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an era when the term "drug" encompassed everything from herbs and spices—like nutmeg, cinnamon, and chamomile—to such deadly poisons as lead, mercury, and arsenic. In The Age of Intoxication, Benjamin Breen offers a window into a time when drugs were not yet separated into categories—illicit and licit, recreational and medicinal, modern and traditional—and there was no barrier between the drug dealer and the pharmacist. Focusing on the Portuguese colonies in Brazil and Angola and on the imperial capital of Lisbon, Breen examines the process by which novel drugs were located, commodified, and consumed. He then turns his attention to the British Empire, arguing that it owed much of its success in this period to its usurpation of the Portuguese drug networks. From the sickly sweet tobacco that helped finance the Atlantic slave trade to the cannabis that an East Indies merchant sold to the natural philosopher Robert Hooke in one of the earliest European coffeehouses, Breen shows how drugs have been entangled with science and empire from the very beginning. Featuring numerous illuminating anecdotes and a cast of characters that includes merchants, slaves, shamans, prophets, inquisitors, and alchemists, The Age of Intoxication rethinks a history of drugs and the early drug trade that has too often been framed as opposites—between medicinal and recreational, legal and illegal, good and evil. Breen argues that, in order to guide drug policy toward a fairer and more informed course, we first need to understand who and what set the global drug trade in motion.