About The Book

Preface

The present era has developed in very rapid way towards the technology aspects. With the help of technology, we can able to isolate, derivative, synthesis and even structural elucidate many natural products containing therapeutic utility. Presently, the detailed information including structure and pharmacodynamic/ pharmacokinetic profiles are commercially available about these. Day by day herbal products are in demand or we can say that they have become an essential part associated with our daily needs. Therefore, it is very crucial to underline the importance of these herbal drugs/products with their broad perspectives in different utility areas.

Worldwide, phytomedicines are gaining more acceptances because of economical and case of availability along with negligible amount of side effects. WHO guidelines for the standardization of herbal drugs have contributed proper validation of herbal drugs with respect to safety, purity and efficacy profiles. Thus considering all; we worked to amend comprehensive information of herbal drugs that cover their source of origin, geographical origin, cultivation, organoleptic characters, microscopy, phytochemistry, and its pharmaceutical uses.

The chapters have been well graded and closely connected to set the relationship between secondary metabolites of crude drugs and biological activities they reflect. Each concept in the book chapters has been clearly drafted in very simpler text forms with schematic diagrams and illustrations. Authors have given more emphasis on recent emerging areas related to Nutraceuticals, marine pharmacognosy, detailed histology, plant biotechnology and biosynthetic pathways. Interesting facts on zoo-pharmacognosy, and some potential phyto- constituents are considered as additional features of this book.

We hope that the students of diploma, degree and post-graduate in particular with pharmacy field and in general with medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, microbiology, veterinary science as well as in Ayurvedic disciplines, will be benefited with this book. Besides this, the contents and protocols, as described in the book; will also be helpful for professionals, who are interested to develop entrepreneurships in pharmaceutical sciences/ herbal products.

About Author

“FUNDAMENTALS OF PHARMACOGNOSY AND PHYTOCHEMISTRY” is an attempt made by the authors to fulfill the long pending needs in the field of Pharmacognosy. The present work can give better understanding about the subject and cover topics which are relevant to the current needs of the students of Pharmaceutical Sciences and related fields.

Pharmacognosy is a branch of Pharmacy, enriched with the knowledge of new chemical entities or moieties having novel and diversified pharmaceutical applications. The chapters in this book have given more attention on the topics such as standardization of crude drugs along with adulterations. The contents on classification, isolation and standardization of herbal drugs/products have been well illustrated with vast coverage on emerging area of neutraceuticals. Along with this, some less explored areas such as “Zoopharmacognosy” have broadly discussed, and the topic like “Biosynthesis of Phytoconstituents” has been reviewed in detail. Marine resources of active constituents have been explored in depth in the chapter “Bioactive natural products from marine source.” The authors have elaborated very well about the isolation techniques of some phyto-constituents, under the section of “Alkaloids and Glycosides”.

Another emerging area, Plant tissue culture has been discussed in detail. This area is considered as potential source to develop novel bioactive compounds. The historical background, nutritional requirements, types of tissue culture and applications have been reviewed and discussed in the chapter “Biotechnological approach for medicinal plants”

In nut cell, the book covers not only the conventional and contemporary topics on Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry but also convolutes the novel topics; well supported by illustrations, figures, flowcharts, key messages etc on a single platform.