Phytochemicals from medicinal plants are receiving ever greater attention in the scientific literature, in medicine, and in the world economy in general. For example, the global value of plant-derived pharmaceuticals will reach $500 billion in the year 2000 in the OECD countries. In the developing countries, over-the-counter remedies and "ethical phytomedicines," which are standardized toxicologically and clinically defined crude drugs, are seen as a promising low cost alternatives in primary health care. The field also has benefited greatly in recent years from the interaction of the study of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge and the application of modem phytochemical analysis and biological activity studies to medicinal plants. The papers on this topic assembled in the present volume were presented at the annual meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America, held in Mexico City, August 15-19, 1994. This meeting location was chosen at the time of entry of Mexico into the North American Free Trade Agreement as another way to celebrate the closer ties between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The meeting site was the historic Calinda Geneve Hotel in Mexico City, a most appropriate site to host a group of phytochemists, since it was the address of Russel Marker. Marker lived at the hotel, and his famous papers on steroidal saponins from Dioscorea composita, which launched the birth control pill, bear the address of the hotel.

1 A Leaf Cell Consists of Several Metabolic Compartments 2 The Use of Energy from Sunlight by Photosynthesis is the Basis of Life on Earth 3 Photosynthesis is an Electron Transport Process 4 ATP is Generated by Photosynthesis 5 Mitochondria are the Power Station of the Cell 6 The Calvin Cycle Catalyzes Photosynthetic CO2 Assimilation 7 In the Photorespiratory Pathway Phosphoglycolate Formed by the Oxygenase Activity of RubisCo is Recycled 8 Photosynthesis Implies the Consumption of Water 9 Polysaccharides are Storage and Transport Forms of Carbohydrates Produced by Photosynthesis 10Nitrate Assimilation is Essential for the Synthesis of Organic Matter 11 Nitrogen Fixation Enables the Nitrogen in the Air to be Used for Plant Growth 12 Sulfate Assimilation Enables the Synthesis of Sulfur Containing Substances 13 Phloem Transport Distributes Photoassimilates to the Various Sites of Consumption and Storage 14 Products of Nitrate Assimilation are Deposited in Plants as Storage Proteins 15 Glycerolipids are Membrane Constituents and Function as Carbon Stores 16 Secondary Metabolites Fulfill Specific Ecological Functions in Plants 17 Large Diversity of Isoprenoids has Multiple Funtions in Plant Metabolism 18 Phenylpropanoids Comprise a Multitude of Plant Secondary Metabolites and Cell Wall Components 19 Multiple Signals Regulate the Growth and Development of Plant Organs and Enable Their Adaptation to Environmental Conditions 20 A Plant Cell has Three Different Genomes 21 Protein Biosynthesis Occurs at Different Sites of a Cell 22 Gene Technology Makes it Possible to Alter Plants to Meet Requirements of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Industry.

CRC Handbook of Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Herbs and Other Economic Plants is a unique catalog that includes more than 15,000 phytochemical constituents from over 1,000 higher plant species. This volume covers all of the generally-recognized-as-safe (GRAS) herbs and at least 250 important food and medicinal plants. Each entry features the scientific name, one or more common names, a listing of phytochemical constituents, a single datum or range of quantitative data (wet-weight to dry-weight in parts per million), two-letter abbreviation identifying the plant part, and three-letter abbreviation(s) indicating the source(s) of the data. The extraordinary amount of data compiled into an easy-to-use tabular format makes the CRC Handbook of Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Herbs and Other Economic Plants a volume useful to all pharmacologists, toxicologists, nutritionists, pharmacognicists, and food scientists.

Pengelly's user friendly text will encourage educators in medical science to consider using this material in the complementary medicine/nutraceuticals areas May I congratulate Andrew Pengelly for writing this text as it is going to be very popular with undergraduate students as well as more experienced readers.' D. Green, London Metropolitan University, UK This unique book explains in simple terms the commonly occurring chemical constituents of medicinal plants. The major classes of plant constituents such as phenols, terpenes and polysaccharides, are described both in terms of their chemical structures and their pharmacological activities. Identifying specific chemical compounds provides insights into traditional and clinical use of these herbs, as well as potential for adverse reactions. Features include: * Over 100 diagrams of chemical structures * References to original research studies and clinical trials * References to plants commonly used throughout Europe, North America and Australasia. Written by an experienced herbal practitioner, The Constituents of Medicinal Plants seriously challenges any suggestion that herbal medicine remains untested and unproven, including as it does hundreds of references to original research studies and trials. Designed as an undergraduate text, the first edition of this book became an essential desktop reference for health practitioners, lecturers, researchers, producers and anyone with an interest in how medicinal herbs work. This edition has been extensively revised to incorporate up-to-date research and additional sections, including an expanded introduction to plant molecular structures, and is destined to become a classic in the literature of herbal medicine.

This book starts with a general introduction to phytochemistry, followed by chapters on plant constituents, their origins and chemistry, but also discussing animal-, microorganism- and mineral-based drugs. Further chapters cover vitamins, food additives and excipients as well as xenobiotics and poisons. The book also explores the herbal approach to disease management and molecular pharmacognosy and introduces methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of plant constituents. Phytochemicals are classified as primary (e.g. carbohydrates, lipids, amino acid derivations, etc.) or secondary (e.g. alkaloids, terpenes and terpenoids, phenolic compounds, glycosides, etc.) metabolites according to their metabolic route of origin, chemical structure and function. A wide variety of primary and secondary phytochemicals are present in medicinal plants, some of which are active phytomedicines and some of which are pharmaceutical excipients.

Medicinal Plants: Chemistry, Biology and Omics reviews the phytochemistry, chemotaxonomy, molecular biology, and phylogeny of selected medicinal plant tribes and genera, and their relevance to drug efficacy. Medicinal plants provide a myriad of pharmaceutically active components, which have been commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine and worldwide for thousands of years. Increasing interest in plant-based medicinal resources has led to additional discoveries of many novel compounds, in various angiosperm and gymnosperm species, and investigations on their chemotaxonomy, molecular phylogeny and pharmacology. Chapters in this book explore the interrelationship within traditional Chinese medicinal plant groups and between Chinese species and species outside of China. Chapters also discuss the incongruence between chemotaxonomy and molecular phylogeny, concluding with chapters on systems biology and "-omics technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), and how they will play an increasingly important role in future pharmaceutical research. - Reviews best practice and essential developments in medicinal plant chemistry and biology - Discusses the principles and applications of various techniques used to discover medicinal compounds - Explores the analysis and classification of novel plant-based medicinal compounds - Includes case studies on pharmaphylogeny - Compares and integrates traditional knowledge and current perception of worldwide medicinal plants

Rauvolfia species, commonly known as Sarpagandha, has been traditionally used in Ayurveda for curing high blood pressure, hypertension, snake bites, fever, and mental illnesses. Due to its wide variety and differences in chemical composition, it is necessary to develop an efficient and reliable method for rapid screening and determination of phytochemicals in the extracts of the Rauvolfia species. This book will provide qualitative and quantitative comparative phytochemical investigations of selected medicinal plants from the Rauvolfia genus using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) techniques. The results will help in assuring the efficacy and safety of Rauvolfia herbal products. Features: Collection of Ayurvedic features and scientific evidence of important medicinal plants. Discusses chemical signatures for the identification of Rauvolfia (Sarpagandha) and its products. Easy-to-use analytical procedure for quality control of Rauvolfia and its products.

Piper is the representative genus of family Piperaceae. Piper species are pan-tropical in distribution and found in both the hemispheres. As the king of all spices, black pepper, Piper nigrum, led to the global expeditions culminating in the discovery of India and the new world. Piper species have been reported to possess various pharmacological activities such as insecticidal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, anti-hypertensive, antithyroid, antitumor activities and hepatoprotective properties. Botanical authentication of the plants of Piper species is difficult because of the morphological similarity among the species. This book describes ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole electrospray tandem mass spectrometry in multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode to study the quantitative variation of thirteen bioactive markers in different plant parts of ten Piper species. Features: Collection of Ayurvedic features and scientific evidence of the most important medicinal plants of Piper species. Describes chemical signatures for identification of Piper species. Provides easy-to-use analytical procedure for quality control of Piper species and its products.

This unique book is a collaborative effort between researchers at Rutgers University and colleagues from numerous institutions in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It will be the first book to document more than 200 of the most important medicinal plants of Central Asia, many whose medicinal uses and activities are being described in English for the first time. The majority of the plants described grow wild in Central Asia with some being endemic, while other species have been introduced to Central Asia but are commonly used in regional plant based medicine. The book contains four introductory chapters. The first and second chapters cover the geography, climate and vegetation of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, respectively. The third chapter provides a brief history of medicinal plant use and science in Central Asia and the fourth chapter contains general information about phytochemistry. The fifth chapter comprises the bulk of the book and covers 208 medicinal plant species. Nearly all species have one or more high quality, color photographs. Three useful appendices have been included. The first is a glossary of botanical and ecological terms, the second is a glossary of chemistry terms and the third is a glossary of medical terms. During the preparation of this manuscript we found there to be a deficiency in quality reference resources for the translation of many of the technical terms associated with the different branches of science covered in this book. In order to make our job easier we compiled glossaries over the course of preparing the manuscript and have included them feeling that they will be an extremely valuable resource for readers. ​

This volume focuses on the importance of therapeutically active compounds of natural origin. Natural materials from plants, microbes, animals, marine organisms and minerals are important sources of modern drugs. Beginning with two chapters on the development and definition of the interdisciplinary field of pharmacognosy, the volume offers up-to-date information on natural and biosynthetic sources of drugs, classification of crude drugs, pharmacognosical botany, examples of medical application, WHO ́s guidelines and intellectual property rights for herbal products.