This two-volume book, Biomolecules and Pharmacology of Medicinal Plants, will be a valuable desk reference book on bioactives and pharmacology of medicinal plants.

Listing the medicinal plants by species, each of these 77 chapters detail the plants’ bioactive phytocompounds and their chemical structures along with their pharmacological activities and properties. These include the plants’ antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective, cardioprotective, and nephroprotective properties.

Bioactive compounds typically occur in small amounts, and they have more subtle effects than nutrients. Bioactive compounds influence cellular activities that modify the risk of disease and cure and alleviate disease symptoms. These compounds can act as antioxidants, enzyme inhibitors and inducers, inhibitors of receptor activities, and inducers and inhibitors of gene expression among other actions. A wide array of biological activities and potential health benefits of medicinal plants have been reported, which include antiviral, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic properties as well as protective effects on the liver, kidney, heart, and nervous system.

The volumes will be a must-have reference for pharmacy institutes and pharmacy professors, phytochemists and research scholars, botanists working with medicinal plants, and postgraduate students of pharmacy and medicine round the world. The comprehensive information presented here provides an invaluable source to aid in the development of new drugs.