The purpose of this book is to discuss several medicinal plants to find wider application in the domain of medicinal, clinical, and pharmaceutical treatment. Recent Advances in Plant-Based, Traditional, and Natural Medicines serves as a useful source of ideas and an inspiration for further cell and molecular biology research toward developing drugs and treatments from these traditional and plant-based remedies. The book covers a variety of topics and: • Considers the current state of research of traditional and plant-based medicines • Covers the current status of ethnomedicine and medicinal plant discovery • Presents the clinical applications of traditional and plant-based medicines

The purpose of this book is to discuss several medicinal plants to find wider application in the domain of medicinal, clinical, and pharmaceutical treatment. Recent Advances in Plant-Based, Traditional, and Natural Medicines serves as a useful source of ideas and an inspiration for further cell and molecular biology research toward developing drugs

Since ancient times, plants have been used as a prime natural source of alternative medicines and have played an important role in our lives. The old tradition of medicinal plant application has turned into a highly profitable business in the global market, resulting in the release of a large number of herbal products. People have tried to find different sources of medicines to alleviate pain and cure different illnesses. Due to severe constraints of synthetic drugs and the increasing contraindications of their usage, there is a growing interest world over in the usage of natural products based on medicinal herbs, hence, there is an ever expanding market of herbs and herbal based medicinal preparations all over the world. This has culminated into an exponential increase in number of research groups in different geographical locations and generation of volume of research data in the field in a short span of time. The path breaking advancement in research methods and interdisciplinary approaches is giving birth to newer perspectives. Therefore, it becomes imperative to keep pace with the advancement in research and development in the field of medicinal herbs. There are a large number of researchers in different parts of the world working on various aspects of medicinal plants and ‘herbal medicines’. The idea is to bring their recent research work into light in the form of a book. The proposed book contains chapters by the eminent researchers in different countries and working with different disciplines of medicinal plants. Articles pertain to different disciplines such as: 1. Resources and conservation of medicinal plants 2. Biosynthesis and metabolic engineering of medicinal plants 3. Tissue culture, propagation and bioreactor technology of medicinal plants 4. Phytochemical research on medicinal plants 5. Herbal medicines and plant-derived agents in cancer prevention and therapy 6. Herbal medicines and plant-derived agents in metabolic syndrome management 7. Herbal medicines and plant-derived agents in modulation of immune-related disorders 8. Herbal medicines and hepatotoxicity The book will prove itself an asset for the researchers, professionals and also students in the area of medicinal plants and mechanism of their action.

This book highlights the latest international research on different aspects of medicinal plants and fungi. Studies over the last decade have demonstrated that bioactive compounds isolated from medicinal fungi have promising antitumor, cardiovascular, immunomodulatory, anti-allergic, anti-diabetic, and hepatoprotective properties. In the light of these studies, the book includes chapters (mostly review articles) by eminent researchers from twelve countries across the globe working in different disciplines of medicinal plants and fungi. It discusses topics such as the prevention of major neurodegenerative and neurotoxic mechanisms by Centella asiatica; the medicinal properties and therapeutic applications of several mushrooms species found in different parts of the world; and fungal endophytes as a source of bioactive metabolites including anticancer and cardioprotective agents. There are also chapters on strategies for identifying bioactive secondary metabolites of fungal origin; the use of genomic information to explore the biotechnological potential of medicinal mushrooms; and solid state fermentation of agro-industrial and forestry residues for the production of medicinal mushrooms. It is a valuable resource for the researchers, professionals and students working in the area of medicinal plants and fungi.

The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef

This book provides a summarized information related to the global herbal drug market and its regulations, ethnopharmacology of traditional crude drugs, isolation of phytopharmaceuticals, phytochemistry, standardization, and quality assessment of crude drugs. Natural products science has constantly been developing with comprehensive data contemplating different parts of natural drugs, such as global trade, quality control and regulatory concerns, traditional medicine systems, production and utilization of drugs, and utilization of medicinal and aromatic plants. This broad information about crude drugs gives rise to a subject that is now recognized as advance natural products science. By contemplating all of this thorough knowledge of the areas, this book is intended to provide considerably to the natural products science. The area of natural products science involves a broad range of topics, such as the pharmacognostical, phytochemical, and ethno-pharmacological aspects of crude drugs. Each chapter gives a sufficient understanding to academicians and researchers in the respective topic. This book includes 40 illustrations and descriptions of roughly 80 medicinal plants used for herbal medicine. The book is an imperative source for all researchers, academicians, students, and those interested in natural products science. FEATURES Includes advance knowledge and detailed developments in natural products science Discusses the most important phytopharmaceuticals used in the pharmaceutical industry Explores the analysis and classification of novel plant-based medicinal compounds Includes standardization, quality control, and global trade of natural products Gives a deep understanding related to recent advances in herbal medicines to treat various ailments Discusses national and WHO regulations and policies related to herbal medicines Covers the complete profile of some important traditional medicinal plants, especially their historical background, biology, and chemistry

Medicinal plants have been used for the maintenance of human health since ancient times, in the form of food, spices, and traditional medicines. Medicinal plant-based traditional medicines serve as the primary healthcare systems in various countries even in recent times. Alongside this, medicinal plants have also served as the one of the main sources for the discovery of new therapeutic agents. At present, various plant extracts and their isolated phytochemicals are screened and evaluated for their diverse pharmacological activities related to both communicable and non-communicable diseases. However, comparatively little focus is given to the detailed mechanism of action of these agents on the molecular level. Molecular mechanism-based studies are essential for the development of evidence-based traditional medicines as well as for the development of isolated natural products as the lead candidates for novel drug discovery. This main focus of this Special Issue "Plant-based Bioactive Natural Products: Insights into Molecular Mechanisms of Action" is to cover the recent advances in science related to the molecular mechanisms of action of natural products. A total of nine articles were published in this Special Issue, including two original research articles and two review articles. This Special Issue has provided some new experimental data on bioactive natural products and their detailed mechanisms of action for biological activities. Similarly, review articles have provided state-of-the-art information on the related topics. I would like to thank all the authors for submitting their manuscripts and the reviewers and editors for their contribution to this Special Issue. Furthermore, I am also grateful to the handling editors and staffs of Applied Sciences for their support during the preparation and finalization of this Special Issue.

Herbs and herbal products are of paramount importance for human health. To beable to guarantee safety and quality, standards and testing methods are needed.Pharmacopoeias contain quality control protocols setting the standards which arethen required by governments. The quality traits are many, including the intrinsicvariables of medicinal plant, e.g. the levels of the active compounds, and the absenceof possibly natural occurring toxic compounds. On the other hand, many qualitytraits are related to agricultural conditions and practices, or to the harvesting andpost-harvest processing. With so many variables, quality control of the end productbecomes extremely complex, time consuming and costly. To ensure the quality ofmedicinal plants for human consumption quality management -the use of “goodpractices” at each step, from seed to final product- becomes a crucial aspect. In general, quality control includes the inspection of the product’s identity, purity,and content, based on its physical, chemical or biological properties. To ensure thequality of herbal medications, criteria such as botanical quality, type of preparation,physical constants, adulteration, contaminants, chemical constituents, pesticidesresidues et al. should be examined. Meanwhile, authentication of herbs is neededto avoid possible adulteration or contaminating plants, even toxic herbs such asAristolochia species. Many of the methods are long standing, such as microscopy incombination with color reactions, but some 50 years ago chromatography developedas a major tool for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of herbal preparations.Nowadays, research is working on the improvement of these methods and on thedevelopment of novel tools. For instance, next generation sequencing and mass spectrometry imaging, areemerging as new technologies for the quality control of herbal medicines. Withthese technologies, quick testing of herbal products and of mixed herbal powderpreparations, including the testing for specific plant parts (botanical drugs), can beachieved. Also, novel chemical tools such as metabolomics and Near Infrared Red(NIR) spectroscopy are being developed as powerful tools to identify and to linkthese with activity by using chemometric tools such as multivariate analysis. Finally,progress of informatic tools such as machine learning helps to deal with the big datagenerated by sequencing or mass spectrometry. However, these new technologies,like all other new born technologies, should be tested and perfected for a broaderrange of products.

Evidence-Based Validation of Herbal Medicines: Translational Research on Botanicals brings together current thinking and practice in the characterization and validation of natural products. The book describes different approaches and techniques for evaluating the quality, safety and efficacy of herbal medicine, particularly methods to assess their activity and understand compounds responsible and their probable underlying mechanisms of action. This book brings together the views, expertise and experiences of scientific experts in the field of medicinal plant research, hence it will be useful for researcher who want to know more about the natural lead with their validation and also useful to exploit traditional medicines. - Includes state-of-the-art methods for detecting, isolating and performing structure elucidation by degradation and spectroscopic techniques - Highlights the trends in validation and value addition of herbal medicine with different scientific approaches used in therapeutics - Contains several all-new chapters on topics such as traditional-medicine-inspired drug development to treat emerging viral diseases, medicinal plants in antimicrobial resistance, TLC bio profiling, botanicals as medicinal foods, bioprospecting and bioassay-guided isolation of medicinal plants, immunomodulators from medicinal plants, and more

New Look to Phytomedicine: Advancements in Herbal Products as Novel Drug Leads is a compilation of in-depth information on the phytopharmaceuticals used in modern medicine for the cure and management of difficult-to-treat and challenging diseases. Readers will find cutting-edge knowledge on the use of plant products with scientific validation, along with updates on advanced herbal medicine in pharmacokinetics and drug delivery. This authoritative book is a comprehensive collection of research based, scientific validations of bioactivities of plant products, such as anti-infective, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, immune-modulatory and metabolic disorders presented by experts from across the globe. Step-by-step information is presented on chemistry, bioactivity and the functional aspects of biologically active compounds. In addition, the pharmacognosy of plant products with mechanistic descriptions of their actions, including pathogenicity is updated with information on the use of nanotechnology and molecular tools in relation to herbal drug research. - Compiles up-to-date information on the chemotherapeutics used in the treatment of infective and metabolic disorders - Presents advancements in the discovery of new drugs from plants using molecular and nanotechnology tools - Examines detailed information on the use of herbals agents in cancer, HIV and other ailments, including diabetes, malaria and neurological disorders