Product Description

Learn how medicinal plants work from the chemical level upward

Understanding Medicinal Plants: Their Chemistry and Therapeutic Action is designed to teach the chemical concepts necessary to understand the actions of medicinal plants to people who are intimidated by chemistry. This beautifully illustrated, accessibly written guide explores the molecules of medicinal plants and the pharmacology behind their actions on the human body. The book will be valuable to non-science majors, biology majors, interested scientists of different disciplines, and practitioners and students of herbalism and complementary medicine.

Understanding Medicinal Plants covers the essentials, including:

• understanding the symbolism of chemical structure
  
• bonding—and predicting useful properties
  
• important plant compounds
  
• isolation and purification of plant molecules
  
• drug delivery and action in the human body
  
• the chemistry of antioxidants
  
• identification of plant molecules

Interest in alternative medicine and herbal products has never been higher than it is now. Understanding Medicinal Plants aims for the middle ground between technical manuals for highly trained individuals and books for the general public that may oversimplify the material. This introductory work provides you with a wealth of suggested reading materials, tables, figures, and illustrations. Three case studies illustrate specific plant drugs and their molecular constituents. This resource also provides an extensive glossary for easy reference.

In Understanding Medicinal Plants, you will find a lexicon of medicinally important chemical families found in plants to help you identify and understand the role of constituents such as:

• alkaloids
  
• flavonoids
  
• coumarins
  
• glycosides
  
• amino acids
  
• lignans
  
• tannins
  
• and many more

Understanding Medicinal Plants enriches your knowledge of the science behind herbalism and increases your savvy as a consumer of herbal products. This sourcebook will help you better understand the debates about the regulation of medicinal plants and related health care policy debates. With this book, you will be able to interpret media hype about medicinal plants with greater confidence.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #736983 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"I ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO PROFESSIONAL AND BUDDING ETHNOBOTANISTS." -- Luis D. Gomez-P, PhD, Professor of Ethnobiology, Duke University Undergraduate Program; Scientific Director, La Selva & Las Cruces Biological Stations, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rican National Academy of Sciences

"THIS BOOK IS REALLY MUCH MORE THAN ITS TITLE IMPLIES." -- Daniel M. Perrine, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Loyola College in Maryland

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Customer Reviews

Dr. Hansen hits a winner !
Bryan A Hanson, PhD, hits a homerun with this book. This is one of the most organized books on medicinal plants you will ever find to date. It actually rivals some of the texts on pharmacognosy currently in use today. Sprinkling in inorganic, organic, and medicinal chemistry, he finds methods of explaining modern chemical concepts which can be easily grasped with little effort. The index is an excellent listing of Lewis structures through subjects such as, secondary metalbolism. On whatever level you want to explore and/or enrich your understanding of some quite complex biochemical subjects, Dr. Hanson has it. At first, I thought the text might be a little brief to cover all that he attempts. However, I found that was an error on my part, as he is quite good at bridging subjects and explaining concepts for all those interested in these topics. He covers subjects that can be hard to find in many modern textbooks, especially those used in colleges around the country. The end book glossary is an excellent idea and very complete. However, one of my favorite subjects he entertains is that of chapter 5 where he explains topics such as lipid and ROS-damaged membranes. Few chemist-authors will step up and explain in detail subjects such as these. He does so quite well. Any true medicinal chemist or layman, if given a chance to peruse a copy, will find this a truly knowledgeable book and would have to purchase it. It is that well written. I'm not in the habit of giving scores to books and/or articles, but this is a 10+ on my list for anyone interested in biochem or medicinal chemistry. The research possiblities alone would make this a "must have" for any personal library. Great book by a great author; hope to see more of his work. guyairey CBP studies

An important reference for any chemistry course or study of healing herbs
The weighty price tag of Understanding Medicinal Plants: Their Chemistry And Therapeutic Action may limit acquisition to college-level specialty collections, but any holding with a solid emphasis on medicine will want this: undergrads in pharmacy, medical students, and more will find in-depth details on the chemistry, biology, plant physiology and pharmacology of medicinal plants, making it an important reference for any chemistry course or study of healing herbs.

Sound knowledge, immature organisation
This book, comprising 7 Chapters, is intended (as explicitly stated by the author) for nonscientists, and it indeed offers sound basic knowledge due to the author's scientific background. It, however, still remains immature in organisation and matter. Main reasons are the following.
The first three Chapters, being an INTRODUCTION to basic Chemistry, are too extended. Especially Chapter 3 is unnecessarily heavy (41 full pages) with details a nonscientist would exactly omit (electrons, orbitals etc), and featured with the Periodic Table of Elements, which is the ONLY Table in the book. So, Chapter 3 could be eliminated, and its last 10-12 pages added to Chapter 2.
Then comes Chapter 4, the gravitation centre of the book, describing the primary and secondary plant substances (metabolites) used as medicines, bearing instead the pompous title "A Structural Lexicon of Medicinally Important Chemical Families Found in Plants", and comprising 35 full pages. Short, and without any table showing (in example) which plants possess which active substances. Another shortage at this point is the entire lack of the metabolic pathways leading to these substances in the living plant.
Chapter 5 exhibits inappropriate organisation, as the Isolation and Identification of plant substances constitute a unity, but their antioxidant action (which is the only action described) does not fit here, it rather should be added to the following Chapter 6 which deals with the actions, however also in short.
And finally, Chapter 7 presents Case Studies, but only with two plants, Ayahuasca (a plant mixture) and Ginkgo, along with plants affecting the cell cycle (in cancer). One would expect here a more systematic presentation of plants for the various systems (nervous, peptic, etc) and main diseases (cancer, arthritis, etc), along with an elaborate Table closing the book, with selected plants, their active substances, actions, and diseases cured.
Let's add that the 22 plant drawings scattered in the book (mostly full-paged) are colorless, unlively, and with faint background.
All in all, the book is in the way to become mature, but is not yet. Still, it is recommended to the intended audience, because of the knowledgable and sound tongue of the author, and because such books are rare.