Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been used for medication in China over thousands of years, and now become more and more accepted as a source of alternative and complementary medicine in western country.Today the chemical analysis is the dominant direction of the quality control system of TCM and natural medicines. But it is difficult to measure the quality for TCM herbs by detecting solely the presence / absence of a single or small number of marker components at very low concentration, especially for the herbs derived from mutliorigins and produced from wide localities, as well as those with unknown principle bioactive components.From this standpoint, it is necessary to use multidisciplinary technologies, integrating the morphological authentication and chemical analysis, qualitative detection and quantitative determination, and physic-chemical analysis and bioassay, in order to distinguish the authentic herb from the adulterant, the superior from the inferior, and to improve the standards of TCM herbs.This book includes 60 commonly used TCM herbs, each involving the following items: definition, location, action and indication, description, microscopic identification, TLC identification, HPLC/GC fingerprint identification (optional), assay, discussion and references.It is a valuable reference of quality evaluation for TCM herbs.Published by SCPG Publishing Corporation and distributed by World Scientific for all markets except China

"Today the chemical analysis is the dominant direction of the quality control system of TCM and natural medicines. But it is difficult to measure the quality for TCM herbs by detecting solely the presence / absence of a single or small number of marker components at very low concentration, especially for the herbs derived from mutliorigins and produced from wide localities, as well as those with unknown principle bioactive components. From this standpoint, it is necessary to use multidisciplinary technologies, integrating the morphological authentication and chemical analysis, qualitative detection and quantitative determination, and physic-chemical analysis and bioassay, in order to distinguish the authentic herb from the adulterant, the superior from the inferior, and to improve the standards of TCM herbs. This book includes 60 commonly used TCM herbs, each involving the following items: definition, location, action and indication, description, microscopic identification, TLC identification, HPLC/GC fingerprint identification (optional), assay, discussion and references. It is a valuable reference of quality evaluation for TCM herbs."--

This work presents up-to-date information on chemical, pharmacological, clinical studies and historical uses of common dietary Chinese herbs. Authored by native experts in the field, the reader is introduced to each herb with a brief chronological review of Chinese literature on dietary herb uses, with chapters dedicated to each selected herb including color photos for each herb. In addition, Chinese characters as well as the Latin botanical name indices, and chemical structures for the known active compounds are also provided. The clear layout examines the health benefits that have been studied for centuries, including current clinical and toxicological data. A wide range of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbs are investigated for their suitability into daily diets for maintaining general wellness or disease prevention. In the past decades, natural health products, dietary supplements, functional foods, or nutraceuticals have emerged in the West due to the increasing demand for non-pharmaceutical healthcare products. Traditional Chinese Medicine disease prevention and treatment incorporates the use of foods, and herbal medicine in an integrated manner, and thus the dietary Chinese herbs in used in TCM for thousands of years could be sources for developing new, effective, and safe ingredients to capture the rapidly expanding opportunity in the global market place.

A collection of test procedures for assessing the identity, purity, and content of medicinal plant materials, including determination of pesticide residues, arsenic and heavy metals. Intended to assist national laboratories engaged in drug quality control, the manual responds to the growing use of medicinal plants, the special quality problems they pose, and the corresponding need for international guidance on reliable methods for quality control. Recommended procedures - whether involving visual inspection or the use of thin-layer chromatography for the qualitative determination of impurities - should also prove useful to the pharmaceutical industry and pharmacists working with these materials.

This is the second volume in a series of monographs which are intended to promote information exchange and international harmonised standards for the quality control and use of herbal medicines. It contains scientific information on 30 selected plants, and each entry includes a pharmacopoeial summary for quality assurance purposes, information on its clinical application and sections on contraindications, pharmacology, safety issues, and dosage forms. It provides two cumulative indexes with entries in alphabetical order by plant name and according to the plant material of interest.

Drug Discovery and Evaluation has become a more and more difficult, expensive and time-consuming process. The effect of a new compound has to be detected by in vitro and in vivo methods of pharmacology. The activity spectrum and the potency compared to existing drugs have to be determined. As these processes can be divided up stepwise we have designed a book series "Drug Discovery and Evaluation" in the form of a recommendation document. The methods to detect drug targets are described in the first volume of this series "Pharmacological Assays" comprising classical methods as well as new technologies. Before going to man, the most suitable compound has to be selected by pharmacokinetic studies and experiments in toxicology. These preclinical methods are described in the second volume „Safety and Pharmacokinetic Assays". Only then are first studies in human beings allowed. Special rules are established for Phase I studies. Clinical pharmacokinetics are performed in parallel with human studies on tolerability and therapeutic effects. Special studies according to various populations and different therapeutic indications are necessary. These items are covered in the third volume: „Methods in Clinical Pharmacology".

This book introduces the methodology for collection and identification of herbal materials, extraction and isolation of compounds from herbs, in vitro bioassay, in vivo animal test, toxicology, and clinical trials of herbal research. To fully understand and make the best use of herbal medicines requires the close combination of chemistry, biochemistry, biology, pharmacology, and clinical science. Although there are many books about traditional medicines research, they mostly focus on either chemical or pharmacological study results of certain plants. This book, however, covers the systematic study and analysis of herbal medicines in general – including chemical isolation and identification, bioassay and mechanism study, pharmacological experiment, and quality control of the raw plant material and end products.