<p>This book consists of cutting-edge materials drawn from diverse, authoritative sources, which are sequentially arranged into a multipurpose, one-stop-shop, user-friendly text. It is divided into four parts as follows:<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Part 1: Historical overview of some indigenous medical systems; an outline of the basic concepts of pharmacognosy, ethnopharmacology; common analytical methods for isolating and characterising phytochemicals; and the different methods for evaluating the quality, purity, biological and pharmacological activities of plant extracts.&nbsp;<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Part 2: Phytochemistry and mode of action of major plant metabolites.<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Part 3: Systems-based phytotherapeutics; discusses how dysfunctioning of the main systems of the human body can be treated with herbal remedies.<br />
&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Part 4: Provides 153 monographs of some medicinal plants commonly used around the world, including 63 on African medicinal plants.&nbsp;<br />
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This book therefore demonstrates the scrupulous intellectual nature of herbalism, depicting it as a scientific discipline in its own right.</p>