Folk Herbal Medicine and Drug Discovery

Contents: Theme I : Pharmacology of Natural Plant Products: 1 Traditional and modern medicines from Fungi/Cedric J. Pearce and Nicholas H. Oberlies. 2 Tribulus terrestris L. and Smilax species – Chemistry and bioactivity/I. Kostova, D. Dinchev and A. Ivanova. 3. Evaluation of the toxic effect of aqueous extract of the bark of Morinda morindoides root in male Wistar rats/Olukunle, J.O., Abatan, M.O., Adenubi, O.T., Ajayi, O.L. and Thomas F.C. 4.  Molecular basis for anticancer and adjunctive therapeutic potential of Thymoquinone in oncologic disease/Sanjeev Banerjee, Mansi Parasramka, Fazlul H Sarkar and Ramzi M Mohammad. 5 Antimicrobial guided isolation of three bioactive constituents from Ficus botryocarpa Fruit Latex/J.S. Wau, A.H. Harakuwe, S. Akoitai, D. Timi, H. Sakulas, R. Gubag-Sipou and P. Wangiwan. 6 Supercritical fluids technology in new herbal drug discovery/Vimal Kumar. 7 Anti-ischemic effect of Ginkgo biloba extract: facts and myths/Jan Lehotsky, Martina Pavlikova, Maria Kovalska, Stanislav Straka and Peter Kaplan. 8. Scientific validation of the anticancer activity of the Alstonia scholaris Linn/Manjeshwar Shrinath Baliga. 9. In vitro antimicrobial activity of roots of Bombax ceiba Linn.–An ethnomedicinal plant/Vartika Jain, S.S. Katewa and S.K. Verma. 10.  Pharmacognostic standardization of leaves of Buchanania lanzan Spreng/Hitesh Shingadia, Meenakshi Vaidya and Hardik Joshi. 11 Essential oil growth for predication of major chemical constituents of an isointermedeol rich Strain of Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Wats (a chemotype of Indian origin) by using energy indices at sub–tropical environment having potential anticancer activity/A.K. Shahi. 12 Pharmacognostic standardization of Vitex negundo Linn. (Verbenaceae)/Meenakshi Vaidya. 13.  Influence of initial concentrations of cholesterol on the uptake of cholesterol by the standard Lactobacillus strains and Lactobacillus isolates/Khushbu Singhal, Joshi Harshada and Chaudhary B.L. 14.  Enhancing the yield of Gymnemic acid, a potent antidiabetic agent from Gymnema sylvestre R.Br. by Microwave-assisted extraction and evaluation of its bioavailability/Suhas Pednekar , Nilesh Joshi, Sasikumar Menon, Sunita Shailajan and Bhalerao Khairnar. 15.  Esophageal mucoprotective effects of curcumin on cadmium chloride induced toxicity in swiss albino mice/Preeti Singh, Priya Mogra, Vandana Sankhla, Kanchan Deora, and Abha Patni. Theme II: Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation: 1 The role of folk or herbal medicine in developing modern drugs and nutraceuticals/P. Pushpangadan and Vipin Mohan Dan. 2. Impact of historical texts on today’s medicinal plant knowledge – Implications for ethnopharmacology/Marco Leonti. 3. Creation of a sustainable economic and social business model between Senna-producing villagers in the Thar Desert and a California herbal product company/Josef A. Brinckmann. 4.  Ethnomedicine and discovery of drugs in Indian context: An overview/N. C. Shah. 5.  Ethnomedicine in drug discovery - Let history tell the future/Pulok Mukherjee, Neelesh K. Nema, S. Pandit, P. Venkatesh, S. Bhadra and Kakli Mukherjee. 6.  Ethnomedicine: A potential resource for some typical health ailments of global concern/Tribhubana Panda. 7.  In situ conservation of medicinal plants in Rajasthan/Satish Kumar Sharma, Anita Jain and S.S. Katewa. 8.  Ethnomedicinal plants and practices of Coastal Karnataka/ M.J. Bhandari and K.R. Chandrashekar. 9. Ethnomedicinal practices of Nyishi (Daffla) tribe of Arunachal Pradesh/R.C. Srivastava. Subject Index.

Traditional medicines, especially the folk herbal medicines have recently been receiving heightened interest the world over. A less visible, but potentially more important application of recent advances in biosciences is the research and validation of herbal medicines used in experience based medicines, such as Chinese medicine and Indian Ayurveda. Ethnobotanical approaches to drug discovery which relies on using the knowledge of indigenous people, particularly healers are the oldest, but perhaps most successful techniques in discovering new pharmaceuticals from biodiversity.

This reference book contains 24 papers by eminent scientists on herbal drugs, drug discovery and other related topics which deal with biological activities and aspects of herbal drug research, such as anti-cancer, antidiabetic, anti-ischemic, anti-microbial, ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, pharmacognostic and phytochemistry. This book will be welcomed by many investigators working in the field of pharmacology, botany, biodiversity conservation, Ayurveda, traditional systems of medicine and drug discovery.