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Medicinal plants

About: Medicinal plants is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3816 publications have been published within this topic receiving 108681 citations. The topic is also known as: medicinal herbs & medicinal plants.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a study was conducted to identify and document herbs and spices used for culinary and medicinal purposes in Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

49 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

49 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The potential interactions between herbal medicines and essential drugs prescribed to Brazilian patients are discussed whilst taking into account the most common polymorphisms present in the Brazilian population.
Abstract: A plethora of active compounds found in herbal medicines can serve as substrate for enzymes involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics. When a medicinal plant is co-administered with a conventional drug and little or no information is known about the pharmacokinetics of the plant metabolites, there is an increased risk of potential herb-drug interactions. Moreover, genetic polymorphisms in a population may act to predispose individuals to adverse reactions. The use of herbal medicines is rapidly increasing in many countries, particularly Brazil where the vast biodiversity is a potential source of new and more affordable treatments for numerous conditions. Accordingly, the Brazilian Unified Public Health System (SUS) produced a list of 71 plant species of interest, which could be made available to the population in the near future. Physicians at SUS prescribe a number of essential drugs and should herbal medicines be added to this system the chance of herb-drug interactions further increases. A review of the effects of these medicinal plants on Phase 1 and Phase 2 metabolic mechanisms and the transporter P-glycoprotein was conducted. The results have shown that approximately half of these medicinal plants lack any pharmacokinetic data. Moreover, most of the studies carried out are in vitro. Only a few reports on herb-drug interactions with essential drugs prescribed by SUS were found, suggesting that very little attention is being given to the safety of herbal medicines. Here we have taken this information to discuss the potential interactions between herbal medicines and essential drugs prescribed to Brazilian patients whilst taking into account the most common polymorphisms present in the Brazilian population. A number of theoretical interactions are pinpointed but more pharmacokinetic studies and pharmacovigilance data are needed to ascertain their clinical significance.

48 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The recent achievements in the worldwide quest for more efficient antioxidants are outlined, with Chinese medicinal and food plants in the central point and various classes of antioxidant compounds will be mentioned.
Abstract: Medicinal plants are an essential part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), an ancient complex therapy considered today as one of the most complete complementary medicine system. Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHM) listings included in Chinese Materia Medica cover more than 1500 plants and a great number of composite preparations. Recently, several TCM herbs have been included into European Pharmacopoeia and many more are on the waiting list. The efficiency of TCM is based on the reinforcing of an organism’s natural healing power and the ability to restore the energy homoeostasis. A likely mechanism of at least some of the activities is interacting with redox balance and prevention of oxidative stress. During the past two decades, hundreds of crude herbs, extracts, and isolated compounds have been screened for their antioxidant properties in vitro and in vivo. Consequently, some of traditional Chinese herbs can be regarded as source of very efficient antioxidant compounds, and this activity could explain some of their therapeutic and preventive usefulness. In this review, we outline the recent achievements in the worldwide quest for more efficient antioxidants, with Chinese medicinal and food plants in the central point. Various classes of antioxidant compounds will be mentioned, such as polyphenols or terpenoids that can act either as direct reactive oxygen species scavengers, transition metal reducers and chelators, or as chain breaking antioxidants. Some methodological considerations will be also discussed, with emphasis on the potential importance of the results obtained with antioxidant assays for human health and disease prevention. In this context, several examples of selected, most promising Chinese medicinal plants will be also presented in more detail.

48 citations

08 Feb 2016
TL;DR: This list of wild medicinal plants in Egypt is intended to provide a guide to the phytochemical properties of these plants.
Abstract: wild medicinal plants in Egypt , wild medicinal plants in Egypt , کتابخانه دیجیتالی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی و خدمات درمانی شهید بهشتی

48 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023617
20221,438
2021239
2020262
2019227
2018252