Waubonsee Community College

The natural history of medicinal plants, Judith Sumner ; foreword by Mark J. Plotkin

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

platesillustrations

index present

non fiction

The natural history of medicinal plants

bibliography

43286652

Judith Sumner ; foreword by Mark J. Plotkin

Wild and cultivated plants have provided humans with cures for thousands of years. Aspirin, for example, the most widely used drug in the Western pharmacopoeia, was first isolated from willows to treat fever, pain, and inflammation. Today it is synthesized in the laboratory, and its use as an anticoagulant eventually could overshadow its use as an analgesic. Other botanical medicines that became significant to human health and well-being are pain-relievers from opium and coca, muscle relaxants from curare, blood anticoagulants from sweet clover, anticancer alkaloids from Madagascar periwinkle and Pacific yew, tranquilizers from snakeroot, and oral contraceptives from molecular precursors in tropical yams

Brief history of medicinal botany -- Acquiring knowledge -- Medicinal plants in nature -- Toxins and cures -- Defensive strategies and plant chemistry -- Significant discoveries -- Zoopharmacognosy and botanical toxins -- Chemical prospecting and new plant medicines -- Protecting medicinal biodiversity and knowledge -- Herbal histories, considerations, and caveats

Medicinal plants