Includes bibliographical references and index.

ch. 1. The European legislation (directive 2004/24/EC) brings clarification and recognition to herbal medicinal products / Giuseppe Nistic�o and Dagmar Roth-Behrendt -- ch. 2. Taxonomy, morphology, and ecology of medicinal plants : a botanical perspective / Simon Pierce, Alessandra Luzzaro, and Bruno E.L. Cerabolini -- ch. 3. Ethnopharmacological approaches used to identify medicinal plants / Tsukasa Sakurada ... [et al.] -- ch. 4. Medicinal plants : molecular biology/biotechnology approach / Candida Vannini ... [et al.] -- ch. 5. Breeding and cultivation of medicinal plants / Christoph Carlen -- ch. 6. Sample preparation, analytical methods, and chemical standardization of medicinal plants / Angela Perrone ... [et al.] -- ch. 7. The role of zebrafish in the future of natural product discovery / Alexander D. Crawford, Camila V. Esguerra, and Peter A.M. de Witte -- ch. 8. Phytocomplexes versus single-entity drugs / Elizabeth M. Williamson -- ch. 9. Molecular modes of action of drugs used in phytomedicine / Michael Wink -- ch. 10. Bioavailability issues of nonnutrient plant and fruit constituents / Mariusz Konrad Piskula and Junji Terao -- ch. 11. From identification to clinical translation of medicinal plants / Gian Franco Gensini ... [et al.] -- ch. 12. Recommendations for reporting randomized controlled trials of herbal medicine interventions / Joel J. Gagnier ... [et al.] --

ch. 13. Pharmacovigilance methods and systems in herbal medicines / Gioacchino Calapai -- ch. 14. Mechanisms and clinical relevance of herb-drug interactions from the perspectives of pharmacokinetics / Laura Berliocchi ... [et al.] -- ch. 15. Nature's gift to photodynamic medicine : hypericin, a herbal photosensitizer, is a component of hypericum perforatum / Heinrich Walt -- ch. 16. Plants and plant-derived products as cancer chemopreventive agents / Douglas M. Noonan, Ilaria Sogno, and Adriana Albini -- ch. 17. From standard tanacetum parthenium extract to a stabilized derivative of parthenolide : studies in animal models of pain / Rosaria Greco ... [et al.] -- ch. 18. Antiviral effects of essential oils used traditionally in phytomedicine / J�urgen Reichling and Paul Schnitzler -- ch. 19. The neuroprotective capacity of achyrocline satureioides (Lam) D.C. and its flavonoids : mechanisms of action / Federico Dajas ... [et al.] -- ch. 20. Recent progress in echinacea research / Karin Woelkart and Rudolf Bauer -- ch. 21. Contribution of herbal medicine to human health : a brief history / Luigi Antonio Morrone ... [et al.] -- ch. 22. Quality issues of current herbal medicines / Paola Montoro, Sonia Piacente, and Cosimo Pizza -- ch. 23. Herbal medicines in the developing world : South America / Federico Dajas and Felicia Rivera-Megret -- ch. 24. Herbal medicines : epidemiology of their utilization : a perspective on the industrialized world / Anna Loraschi and Marco Cosentino.

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