Underexplored Medicinal Plants from Sub-Saharan Africa: Plants with Therapeutic Potential for Human Health examines a comprehensive selection of rarely explored plants that have been underestimated for their therapeutic value. The book contains monographs of medicinal plants, outlining their botanical description, geographical distribution, ethnobotanical usage, chemical constituents, sample and standard preparations and methods, and pharmacological properties. With expert contributors from South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Cameroon and Nigeria, and the compilation of ethnobotanical, taxonomic and pharmacologic information for each species, this book is a valuable resource for researchers, academics in pharmacology, ethnopharmacology, medicinal plant sciences, and more. - Explores the therapeutic potential of a comprehensive selection of underexplored and underutilized medicinal plants in sub-Sahara Africa - Provides a summary table of structures of any known natural products, including details of plant source (chapter) and observed activity (e.g. anticancer, antibacterial) - Includes contributions from experts from South African, Mauritius, Seychelles, Cameroon and Nigeria

PROTA 11 deals with the medicinal plants of Tropical Africa. Because the group is very large, it has been subdivided into 4 volumes. This volume, PROTA 11(2), describes 409 medicinal plants in 146 review articles. All articles are illustrated with geographic distribution maps and many with botanical line drawings.

With over 50,000 distinct species in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the African continent is endowed with an enormous wealth of plant resources. While more than 25 percent of known species have been used for several centuries in traditional African medicine for the prevention and treatment of diseases, Africa remains a minor player in the global natural products market largely due to lack of practical information. This updated and expanded second edition of the Handbook of African Medicinal Plants provides a comprehensive review of more than 2,000 species of plants employed in indigenous African medicine, with full-color photographs and references from over 1,100 publications. The first part of the book contains a catalog of the plants used as ingredients for the preparation of traditional remedies, including their medicinal uses and the parts of the plant used. This is followed by a pharmacognostical profile of 170 of the major herbs, with a brief description of the diagnostic features of the leaves, flowers, and fruits and monographs with botanical names, common names, synonyms, African names, habitat and distribution, ethnomedicinal uses, chemical constituents, and reported pharmacological activity. The second part of the book provides an introduction to African traditional medicine, outlining African cosmology and beliefs as they relate to healing and the use of herbs, health foods, and medicinal plants. This book presents scientific documentation of the correlation between the observed folk use and demonstrable biological activity, as well as the characterized constituents of the plants.

The history of medicinal plants on the African continent is huge, the oldest and probably the most diverse, for there are thousands of spoken languages, in the sub-Saharan African region, that are used during the traditional practices that utilize medicinal plants for healing purposes. However, our lines of research have exhibited a potential unprecedented threat to this remarkable history of African medicinal plants by emerging pollutants, the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which are yet to be efficiently and sufficiently reported and documented on in this region. Accordingly, this review chapter reports on sub-Saharan African medicinal plants with the aim of highlighting how undocumented PFASs, in this region, present a huge threat to the extraordinary diversity of these plants and the therapy that they have assisted the low-income populations of this region with for centuries. Thus, we recommend appropriate and regular assessments and monitoring of PFASs, particularly perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) the most studied of these substances and their substitutes, in medicinal plants of the region, for these chemicals have been scientifically proven to be associated to numerous health concerns. The region should also consider properly regulating these compounds.

Medicinal Plants of East Africa is a revised edition of the book first published in 1976 on herbal remedies and he traditional medical practice of East Africa. The book covers the rich diversity of plants found in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, from sea to alpine plants. East Africa also has a rich ethnic diversity and a large number of herbalists whose traditional knowledge and practices are also covered in the book. Over 1500 species are described and for the first time over 200 of these herbs have been illustrated. Also included are maps detailing where the herbs were collected and an ethnographic map detailing the tribes of each herbalist whose knowledge is contained in the book. John Kokwaro is an Eminent Professor of Botany and a research specialist on herbal remedies at the University of Nairobi.

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.