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Historically, natural products have great relevance for the development of new drugs. Natural molecules, in addition to directly providing new compounds with different therapeutic functions have provided scaffolds and a great diversity of structures that serve as inspiration for the design and discovery of new drugs. The great structural complexity and the significant number of natural compounds that can be obtained and their advantages also present some historical problems that need to be overcome. Issues such as difficulty in isolation, difficulty in synthesizing compounds found in nature in the laboratory, screening to evaluate the biological properties of these compounds, and structural optimization to enhance the pharmacological properties of biomolecules; are some of the main difficulties encountered in research with natural products and in the design/discovery of new medicines. Therefore, this book addresses the great scientific advances that provide practical solutions to usingnatural products to develop new drugs. We address topics related to the genesis of research projects that use natural products to design new drugs. We address the discovery of new species, initial processes for identification and extraction of compounds, isolation and identification of these structures, techniques, and advances in vitro and in vivo methods that support the discovery of new natural drugs, synthesis of new compounds from natural molecules, in silico optimization processes of potentially promising compounds.

This book provides a reference guide describing the current status of medication in all major psychiatric and neurological indications, together with comparisons of pharmacological treatment strategies in clinical settings in Europe, USA, Japan and China. In addition, it highlights herbal medicine as used in China and Japan, as well as complementary medicine and nutritional aspects. This novel approach offers international readers a global approach in a single dedicated publication and is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in comparing treatments for psychiatric disorders in three different cultural areas. There are three volumes devoted to Basic Principles and General Aspects, offering a general overview of psychopharmacotherapy (Vol. 1); Classes, Drugs and Special Aspects covering the role of psychotropic drugs in the field of psychiatry and neurology (Vol. 2) and Applied Psychopharmacotherapy focusing on applied psychopharmacotherapy (Vol. 3). These books are invaluable to psychiatrists, neurologists, neuroscientists, medical practitioners and clinical psychologists.

Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the “scientific methods”. Current research on drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in the search for compounds which act on a key enzyme or a subset of receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of preparative procedures.Research scientists should therefore arm themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2 deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of herbal medicine. Specifically, it will focus on the secondary metabolic compounds which afford protection against diseases. Lastly, Volume 3 focuses on the physiological mechanisms by which the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners, and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.

This book is written for researchers, undergraduate students and postgraduate students, physicians and traditional medicine practitioners who develop research in the field of neurosciences, phytochemistry and ethnopharmacology or can be useful for their practice. Topics discussed include the description of depression, its biochemical causes, the targets of antidepressant drugs, animal and cell models commonly used in the research of this pathology, medicinal plants and bioactive compounds with antidepressant activity used in traditional medicine, advances in nanotechnology for drug delivery to the brain and finally the future challenges for researchers studying this pathology.

Der dritte Band des Gebietes Drogen der Neuauflage enthält in alphabetischer Reihenfolge von P - Z Monographien über Arzneipflanzengattungen. Jede einzelne Monographie umfaßt die für die pharmazeutische Praxis wichtigen Arzneipflanzen mit den dazugehörigen allopathischen und homöopathischen Zubereitungen. In den Monographien werden Aussagen über die Botanik, Chemotaxonomie, Analytik, Wirkung, medizinische Anwendung und Toxikologie gemacht. Von besonderer Bedeutung sind Drogen des DAB/HAB und von in Europa gültigen Arzneibüchern.

Since the exhaustive Handbook of Physiology (Alimentary Canal, Section 6, Motility) edited by CHARLES F. CODE in 1968, no complete survey of the morphological basis and the physiological control of intestinal motility has been published, in spite of the enormous amount of new data in the literature on this topic. The new techniques and methodologies, the use of electron microscopy, radioimmunoassay and binding techniques, as weIl as ever more sophisticated electrophysiological procedures have made possible areal flood of discoveries in this field. Moreover, the possibility ofnew studies ofthe endocrine cells in biopsies of human intestinal mucosa even during routine endoscopies, has opened new horizons for gastroenterologists and generated a number of important contribu­ tions to our knowledge of the morphology and physiopathology of the gut. As usual, new discoveries have also revealed both ignorance and many new problems. For tbis reason, although many of the data reported in this volume can be considered as firmly established, others still require confirmation, and the results of new research in this field are awaited with extreme interest. Since advances are occurring so rapidly, even experts in the specific topics need frequent comprehensive reviews. To avoid an excessively large volume, considera­ tions ofthe pancreas, liver, and biliary system were not included in this Handbook, which, nevertheless, has attempted to off er the reader the essence of more than 1,500 papers.

Not much more than a decade has passed since the appearance of the outstanding handbook, Catecholamines, edited by BLASCHKO and MUSCHOLL, in the series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. However, this extremely well organized volume dealt mainly with the origin, molecular actions, and fate of the naturally occuring catecholamines. It was felt that a separate volume should be dedicated to the remarkable and exciting progress made in the field of agents influencing the adrenergic system, both in physiologic and pharmacologic respect. The editor of the present volume considers himself lucky to have been able to persuade a number of eminent specialists to collaborate. The main concept of the present handbook is a systematic approach to the various effects of adrenergic activators and inhibitors starting with the chemistry and structure actitivity relationship, followed by the evaluation of adrenergic activators and inhibitors, and discussing their mode of action. The most voluminous part is the chapter dealing with the systemic pharma­ cology of these agents analyzing the effects on the central nervous system, on the autonomic nervous system, on the cardiovascular, the respiratory, the digestive, the endocrine system, on the skeletal muscle, and on metabolism. Kinetics and bio­ transformation, further toxic effects are discussed in the following chapters. A special chapter on clinical features concludes the monograph.

This book continues as volume 2 of a multi-compendium on Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants. It covers edible fruits/seeds used fresh or processed, as vegetables, spices, stimulants, pulses, edible oils and beverages. It encompasses species from the following families: Clusiaceae, Combretaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Dilleniaceae, Ebenaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Ericaceae and Fabaceae. This work will be of significant interest to scientists, researchers, medical practitioners, pharmacologists, ethnobotanists, horticulturists, food nutritionists, agriculturists, botanists, herbalogists, conservationists, teachers, lecturers, students and the general public. Topics covered include: taxonomy (botanical name and synonyms); common English and vernacular names; origin and distribution; agro-ecological requirements; edible plant part and uses; botany; nutritive and medicinal/pharmacological properties, medicinal uses and current research findings; non-edible uses; and selected/cited references.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.