Description
The full colour, beautifully illustrated Modern Medicines from Plants: Botanical histories of some of modern medicine’s most important drugs features information on plants from which we obtain modern prescription medicines. It outlines their historical uses as herbal medicines in the past two millennia, using primary sources, and describes how extracts from them, and their semisynthetic and synthetic derivatives, were developed to be today’s therapeutic drugs and diagnostic chemicals. This book describes medicinal plants and their habitats, the diseases that their medicines treat, and the science of how they work.
This amazing and unique book is a wonderful read for those with an interest in both herbal and prescription medicines. Written with authority by physicians and gardeners at the Garden of Medicinal Plants at the Royal College of Physicians, London, chapters detail the history and modern scientific research on plants and their medicines. It is very useful to physicians, pharmacists, herbalists, historians and gardeners, bringing together information from every discipline to make it a work of interest as well as reference.
Features
- Written for people interested in medicinal plants, where medicines come from, and how they treat our diseases
- Contains information on 50 plants, mostly growing in the medicinal garden of the Royal College of Physicians in London, describing how they became the source of modern pharmaceutical medicines
- Describes medicinal uses of plants in Classical Greece as written by Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen, through the flowering of Arabic medicine by physicians such as Paulus Aegineta, Mesue and Avicenna to the 12th to 14th century compilations of Serapion and Sylvaticus and the European Renaissance of Peter Treveris, William Turner, Leonard Fuchs, Pietro Mattioli, John Gerarde, John Parkinson, Nicholas Culpeper, and many others to the pharmacopoeias of the 16th century to the present day
- Fully referenced including a glossary for explanation of technical terms
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Ammi majus – ammi, false Queen Anne’s lace, bullwort, bishop’s weed, herb william – ethoxsalen (8-methoxypsoralen) 2. Artemisia annua – sweet wormwood, annual wormwood, Qing-Hao – artemesinin and derivatives 3. Atropa belladonna – deadly nightshade; Datura stramonium – Jimson weed; and Mandragora, Hyoscyamus, Brugmansia, Scopolia – atropine and hyoscine 4. Betula pendula – silver birch - β-sitosterol 5. Camellia sinensis - tea; Coffea arabica – coffee; Theobroma cacao – chocolate – caffeine, theophylline 6. Camptotheca acuminata – camptotheca – camptothecin, topotecan and irinotecan 7. Capsicum annuum – chilli pepper – capsaicin 8. Catharanthus roseus – Madagascar periwinkle, Cayenne Jasmine, old maid, rosy periwinkle – vincristine, vinblastine 9. Cephalotaxus harringtonia – Chinese plum yew – harringtonine 10. Chondrodendron tomentosum – curare vine – tubocurarine 11. Cinchona species – quinine tree, Jesuit’s bark, Peruvian bark – quinine, quinidine 12. Citrus x limon – lemon – vitamin C 13. Colchicum autumnale – meadow saffron, autumn crocus, naked ladies – colchicine 14. Digitalis purpurea – purple foxglove – digitoxin; Digitalis lanata – woolly foxglove – digoxin 15. Dioscorea polystachya – yam; Glycine max – soybean – steroids 16. Ephedra sinica – Joint pine, Mormon tea – ephedrine, ecstasy 17. Erythroxylum coca – coca bush – cocaine 18. Euphorbia peplus – common spurge – ingenol mebutate 19. Galanthus nivalis – snowdrop – galantamine 20. Galega officinalis – goat’s rue – phenformin, metformin 21. Glycyrrhiza glabra – liquorice – carbenoxolone, glycyrrhizic acid 22. Guaiacum officinale – roughbark lignum-vitae, guaiacwood – alpha-guaiaconic acid 23. Hordeum jubatum – foxtail barley; Arundo donax – giant reed – lignocaine (lidocaine) and derivatives 24. Hordeum vulgare, Claviceps purpurea – common barley, ergot – ergometrine, ergotamine 25. Hydrangea febrifuga – Asian hydrangea, Chinese quinine – febrifugine, methaqualone, halofuginone 26. Illicium verum – Chinese star anise; I. anisatum – Japanese Star Anise – oseltamivir 27. Inula helenium – elecampane, enula, horseheal, scabwort, wild sunflower – inulin 28. Melilotus officinalis – melilot, ellow weet clover, king’s clover, yellow melilot – warfarin 29. Morus alba – white mulberry – miglustat, miglitol 30. Nicotiana tabacum – tobacco – nicotine, with a note on Lobelia – lobeline, and Laburnum anagyroides – cytisine 31. Papaver rhoeas – corn or Flander’s poppy – rhoeadine, thebaine, oxycodone, etorphine and other derivatives 32. Papaver somniferum – opium poppy – morphine, codeine, noscapine, protopine 33. Physostigma venenosum – Calabar bean – physostigmine 34. Pilocarpus microphyllus – jaborandi – pilocarpine 35. Podophyllum peltatum – Mayapple, American mandrake, Ground lemon; Podophyllum hexandrum – Himalayan mayapple – podophyllotoxin, etoposide, teniposide 36. Rauvolfia serpentina – snake root – reserpine 37. Salix alba – willow; Filipendula ulmaria – meadowsweet; Gaultheria procumbens – wintergreen – aspirin, salicylic acid and methyl salicylate 38. Silybum marianum – milk thistle – silymarin, Legalon-SIL 39. Tanacetum cineriifolium – pyrethrum, Dalmation chrysanthemum – pyrethrins 40. Taxus baccata – European yew; Taxus brevifolia –Pacific yew – paclitaxel and derivatives 41. Valeriana officinalis – valerian – sodium valproate 42. Veratrum album, V. nigrum – false hellebores – protoveratrine – V. californicum – cyclopamine and sonidegib 43. Visnaga daucoides – khella – nifedipine, amiodarone, sodium cromoglicate, nedocromil sodium 44. Excipients and Solvents 45. Vitamins
