Fundamentals of Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy is an important and timely book that will add to this growing interest in the use and study of medicinal plants, herbs and other natural products. It will meet the need for a modern, up-to-date textbook for students in a wide range of disciplines, including pharmacy, herbalism, complementary and alternative medicine.
The four authors - Professor Michael Heinrich, Dr Joanne Barnes, Dr Simon Gibbons and Dr Elizabeth Williamson - are all experts in their respective fields, whose collective knowledge gives both diversity and authority to this important new volume.
Features
* Gives students an overview of all aspects of the field
Provides a useful sourcebook for practising pharmacists
Brings together in one book therapeutic aspects with natural science and chemistry
Will help promote the use of safe and well documented herbal remedies
Further reading will lead students to more in depth reference works
Contents
PART A: FUNDAMENTALS OF PHARMACOGNOSY
Section 1. Phytotherapy and Pharmacognosy
Includes chapters on the importance of plants in modern pharmacy and medicine and the history of pharmacognosy
Section 2 Basic Plant Biology
1) Covering general principles of botany, as well as information on ethnobotany and ethnopharmacy
Section 3 Natural product chemistry
Including methods and anticancer natural products
Section 4 Plant extract derived pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals
This section has chapters on production, standardization and quality control, plus characteristics of phytomedicines
Section 5 Medicinal Plants in Selected Health Care Systems
Covering traditional systems of herbal medicine and complementary and alternative medicine
PART B: IMPORTANT NATURAL PRODUCTS AND PHYTOMEDICINES USED IN PHARMACY AND MEDICINE
This part of the book includes chapters on each body system, as well as supportive and protective therapies for stress, ageing, cancer and debility
Epilogue - a personal view, by J. David Phillipson
Glossary
Index
Reviews
"This is the first book that I have encountered which combines the compounds and plants found in standard pharmacognosy textbooks, i.e. those used in orthodox Western medicine, with the 'new phytopharmaceuticals' which have become established in Western culture over the last 20 years. The medical establishment in this environment is finally catching up with the practices of the general population and so this book is an excellent choice for those who wish to investigate which of the many plants available have some scientific credence.
I shall be adding this book to the Essential Reading list for all of the undergraduate students on our pharmacy degree course and would encourage all those involved in teaching pharmacy students to do the same." P.J. Houghton, Department of Pharmacy, King's College London, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, November 2003
the title suggests, the book is divided into two main parts. Part A, which is titled “Fundamentals of pharmacognosy”, begins with a brief but informative overview of the basic principles of phytotherapy and pharmacognosy. Drawing on their wealth of experience and knowledge in this field, the authors, who are without doubt among the finest minds in pharmacognosy today, provide useful and fascinating insights into the history, botany, chemistry, phytotherapy and importance of medicinal plants in some of today’s health care systems.
This is a landmark textbook, which carefully brings together relevant data from numerous sources and provides in an authoritative and exhaustive manner, cutting edge information that is relevant to pharmacists, pharmacognocists, complementary practitioners, doctors and nurses alike." Senior Lecturer in Herbal Medicine, Middlesex University, The Pharmaceutical Journal, April 2004
educated pharmacists no doubt equate Pharmacognosy with hours spent hunched over a microscope identifying vegetable drugs. Many probably consider it as a subject with little importance in a modern Pharmacy curriculum. How wrong they are! ... The book is designed to give an overview at an easy-to-understand level of a broad subject area...For students of science and of the healthcare professions it is a useful text and the authors are to be commended for their work." Ingrid Hook, Irish Pharmacy Journal, June 2004
Features
Gives students an overview of all aspects of the field
Provides a useful sourcebook for practising pharmacists
Brings together in one book therapeutic aspects with natural science and chemistry
Will help promote the use of safe and well documented herbal remedies
Further reading will lead students to more in depth reference works
