This book focuses on natural products, in particular medicinal plants and their derived products, 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 the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants and phytochemicals in treating human diseases. A plethora of basic studies has also unraveled 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 systematically documented.
represents a comprehensive analysis of natural products, mainly medicinal plants and phytochemicals. It includes detailed medicinal properties and pharmacological action from
models to clinical trials. The goal is to present the readers a carefully curated collection of plant-derived natural products and their underlying molecular mechanisms.
Karuppusamy Arunachalam, PhD, is the Visiting Professor of Center for Studies in Stem Cells, Cell Therapy and Toxicological Genetics (CeTroGen), Graduate Program in Health and Development of the Midwest Region Faculdade de Medicina Dr. Hélio Mandetta (FAMED), Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul Brazil. He was awarded as a President's International Fellowship Initiative, (PIFI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020), Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before joining the KIB in 2020, he spent 5 years in the Area Pharmacology Laboratory, Department of Basic Sciences in Health, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Brazil as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. He is working on wide range of topics, including Ethnobotany, Biotechnology, Ethnopharmacology and Pre-clinical pharmacology, with a major focus being the herbal drug development. In recent years, he has been exploring Natural Products with an emphasis in phytochemical and Pharmacology, Neutraceuticals and Polysaccharides. Arunachalam K has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles. He published 4 books and 7 book chapters. In addition, he secured the 4 registered international patents (Brazil) and 1 granted National patent (India).
Xuefei Yang, PhD, Professor, is the group leader of Ethnobotany and Natural Resource Management of Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). She was trained in multidisciplinary such as Ethnoecology, Global Change Biology, Natural Resource Management, Biodiversity Conservation, Fungal Ecology, Spatial Ecology, and Forestry Ecology. She holds a PhD in Biology granted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006 and three Master Degrees from KIB in China, International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in the Netherlands, and the Center for Space Science, Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP, affiliated to the United Nations) in India, respectively. Since 2006, she worked as a scientist at KIB on a broad range of research topics and had been promoted as an associate Professor in 2010 and group leader of Ethnobotany in 2014. She has published around 70 research articles on peer-reviewed journals and three books.
Sreeja Puthanpura Sasidharan PhD, is an Assistant professor (contract) of Department of Botany, NSS College, Nemmara, Palakkad, Kerala, India. She has completed her graduation from Calicut University, Kerala and post-graduation, M.Phil and Ph.D from Bharathiar University, Tamil Nadu. Presently she is working in the field of bioprospection of medicinal plants with phytochemical and pharmacological studies. She has published 13 research articles with the citation number of 85 in google scholar and 4 book chapters, in various reputed International journals/publishers. In addition, she has published two books in Springer International publisher. She have two years of teaching and 5 years of research experiences