About the Book
Worldwide investigations in specialized areas of biological activity have nevertheless confirmed that plants are a reservoir of chemical agents with therapeutical potential. Since new diseases as well as drug-resistant strains of known pathogens continue to emerge, the search for novel compounds from drug plants is ongoing process and there is a need to exchange this vital information for wider application by the global scientific community. The present volume is an endeavour in this direction and presents 23 chapters on medicinal plants investigations authored by eminent scientists from India and abroad on various aspects viz. medicinal properties and uses, chemical and pharmacological profiles, cellular and molecular mechanisms of the therapeutic actions, chemical composition and biological activity, chemopreventive and radioprotective effects, pharmacokinetics and pharmaco-dynamics, ethnopharmacology etc. for many medicinal species studied viz., Hypericum perforatum, Pueraria lobata, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Tabernanthe iboga, Panax ginseng, Crataegus laevigata, Citrus aurantum, Crocus sativus, Allium hirtifolium, Alchornea glandulosa, Byrsonima fagifolia, Mouriri pusa, Zingiber officinale, Terminalia arjuna, Catharanthus roseus, Pongamia pinnata, Azadirachta indica, Artocarpus altilis, Morus alba, Melia azedarach, Chrysanthemum coronarium, Stellaria chamaejasme, Daphne tangutica, Xanthium sibiricum, Bidens pilosa, Xanthopappus subacaulis, Radix Scutellariae, Huperzia saururus, Pterocarpus angolensis, Clausena anisata, Ziziphus mucronata, Turraea nilotica, Vangueria infausta, Annona stenophylla, Ximenia caffra, Dicoma anomalia and Daucus carota. The findings could serve as basic material for further studies in the direction of developing new phyto-therapeutics. The contributions are from far and wide including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, India, Iran, Poland, Serbia, Taiwan, United Kingdom, U.S.A. and Zimbabwe. The volume aims to document updated information on medicinal plants investigations to bring these to the attention of international scientific community, particularly the phytochemists, pharmacologists, microbiologists, biochemists, biotechnologists, medical scientists and other researchers engaged in the discovery and development of new drugs of natural origin.
