Natural Products Pharmacology And Phytochemicals For Health Care

Medicinal chemistry and pharmacology are closely associated fields, and the use of natural products for their medicinal properties is ever-growing. The study of drugs from natural products and their effects on the living body are explored in this volume. The book looks into the research, discovery, and characterization of chemicals that exhibit biological effects. Providing an informative compilation of research, valuable case studies, and reviews of existing literature in the area, the book focuses on the ethnobotanical uses of natural products and phytochemicals for health care, including applications for diabetes, ulcers, wound healing, chronic alcoholism, hemorrhoidal treatment, cancer mitigation, pain management, immunotherapy, and more.

Nature has consistently provided human beings with bioactive compounds that can be used directly as drugs or indirectly as drug leads. Some of the major classes of natural bioactive compounds include phenolics, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, lignin, glycosides, terpenoids, and many more. They possess a broad range of biological activities and are primarily useful in the treatment of various health issues. At the same time, the search for new and novel drugs is never-ending and, despite major advances in synthetic chemistry, nature remains an essential resource for drug discovery. Therefore, more and more researchers are interested in understanding the chemistry, clinical pharmacology, and beneficial effects of bioactive compounds in connection with solving human health problems. This book presents a wealth of information on natural metabolites that have been or are currently being used as drugs or leads for the discovery of new drugs. In addition, it highlights the importance of natural products against various human diseases, and their applications in the drug, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and herbal industries. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable resource for all students, educators, and healthcare experts involved in natural product research, phytochemistry, and pharmacological research.

Plants produce secondary metabolites that humans harness for their own benefit. About half of drugs currently in clinical use are based on these chemicals found in nature. Chemistry of Natural Products covers secondary metabolites present in medicinal plants and their biosynthesis, biological activities, and isolation and separation techniques. This book is ideal for researchers in the areas of biochemistry, medicine, and pharmacology.

Medicinal plants and their derived products remain as an indispensable source of bioactive molecules that serve as either drug candidates or lead compounds for drug design and discovery. There are several advantages for plant-derived therapeutics including wide availability, diverse pharmacological actions and a generally good profile of safety and tolerability. Over the recent years, there have been numerous reports from clinical studies testifying to the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants and phytochemicals in ameliorating several human diseases. A plethora of basic studies has also unravelled molecular mechanisms underlying the health benefits of herbal medicines. Nevertheless, issues such as identification of bioactive ingredients, standardization of the products and drug interactions remain to be further studied. In this book, we aim to put together several chapters on the medicinal properties and pharmacological action of medicinal plants, plant species and phytochemicals. The goal is to present a comprehensive collection on most of the therapeutic aspects of plant-derived natural products and molecular mechanisms thereof.

This volume provides information on how to select and screen plants for their medicinal properties. It describes phytopharmacological techniques for extracting and qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing a plant’s phytochemicals. After a detailed in vitro investigation including nutritional and anti-nutritional analyses, medicinal properties were tested with various in vivo models for anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-pyretic, anticancer and anti-diabetic properties, as well as wound healing, neurodegenerative diseases, etc. Compound identification and purification techniques include, among others, TLC and column chromatography, as well as molecular docking with specific proteins.

A vast majority of the world’s population lacks access to essential medicines and the provision of safe healthcare services. Medicinal plants and herbal medicines can be applied for pharmacognosy, or the discovery of new drugs, or as an aid for plant physiology studies. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the search for new chemical entities and the expression of resistance of many drugs available in the market has led to a shift in paradigm towards medicinal research. Herbal treatments, the most popular form of folk medicine, may become an important way of increasing access to healthcare services. Advanced Pharmacological Uses of Medicinal Plants and Natural Products provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of drug discovery from natural sources that allow for the effective treatment of human health problems without any side effects, toxicity, or drug resistance. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as ethnobotany, therapeutic applications, and bioactive compounds, this book is ideally designed for pharmacologists, scientists, ethnobotanists, botanists, health researchers, professors, industry professionals, and health students in fields that include pharmaceutical drug development and discovery.

Natural products have a long history of use as folk medicines in several systems of traditional medicine. Extensive evidence from modern pharmacological studies has confirmed traditional applications, and unveiled the vast potential of naturally occurring compounds, particularly plant-derived phytochemicals, in the management of chronic human diseases. The past decade has witnessed a surge of findings from randomized controlled trials testifying the safety and efficacy of natural products as adjuncts or alternatives to standard-of-care medications for several illnesses. Biomolecular studies have unveiled hundreds of cellular and molecular targets for phytochemicals including key transcription factors, receptors, enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, cytokines, lipids, and non-coding RNAs. Extensive research on the preventative and therapeutic effects of natural products necessitates regular updating of the literature as to the developing potential roles of these compounds in different human diseases. This new book provides an overview of the current pharmacological and clinical features of natural products, and the role of phytopharmaceutical compounds in health and diseases. Chapters cover a wide scope, from cancers, to chronic and age-related disorders, and are written by leading international subject experts. Collectively, chapters will provide useful insights on the regulatory effects of phytochemicals and nutraceuticals on pathogenic molecular signatures associated with pathologies, disease biomarkers, and aging-related pathways.

This book covers the recent innovations relating to various bioactive natural products (such as alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, anthraquinones, steroids, polysaccharides, tannins and polyphenolic compounds, volatile oils, fixed oils, fats and waxes, proteins and peptides, vitamins, marine products, camptothecin, piperines, carvacrol, gedunin, GABA, ginsenosides) and their applications in the pharmaceutical fields related to academic, research and industry.