Modern Phytomedicine: Turning Medicinal Plants intoDrugs.

Medicinal preparations derived from natural sources, especially from plants, have been in widespread use since time immemorial. Ancient texts of India and China contain exhaustive depictions of the use of a variety of plant-derived medications.In fact, plants remain the main source of medicines for a large proportion of the world’s population, particularly in the developing world, despite the advent of the pharmaceutical chemistry during the early twentieth century, which brought with it the ability to synthesize an enormous variety of medicinal drug molecules and al-lowed the treatment of previously incurable and/or life threatening diseases.Not surprisingly, chemically synthesized drug gained popularity and became the basis of pharmaceutical industry. Over the years, however, synthetic drugs have been plagued by unwanted side-effects, toxicity, and inefficiency, among other problems. In addition, the search for new drugs against a variety of illnesses through chemical synthesis and other modern approaches has not been encouraging. These factors, as well as the emergence of new infectious diseases, the proliferation of disorders such as cancer, and growing multidrug resistance in pathogenic microorganisms, have prompted renewed interest in the discovery of potential drug molecules from medicinal plants.
Herbal medicine is now globally accepted as a valid alternative system of therapy in the form of pharmaceuticals, functional foods, etc., a trend recognized and advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Various studies around the world, especially in Europe, have been initiated to develop scientific evidence- based rational herbal therapies. Though ancient medical treatises have documented a large number of medicinal plants, most have remained undocumented and uncharacterized, the knowledge of their use being passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. New plant sources of medicine are also being discovered.
Here we have made an attempt to bring together recent work and current trends in the field of modern phytomedicine from different parts of the world. Although there are a number of blogs available on medicinal plants and phytocompounds, this blog has unique contributions in the form of chapters from experts in the field starting from the concept of phytoscience, screening biological activities against problematic infectious agents such as multidrugresistant bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Discussion of types of herbal remedies, problems associated with herbal medicines, such as efficacy, adulteration, safety, toxicity, regulations, and drug delivery etc. are included as contributions by different learned experts.
Today’s use of medicinal plants and bioactive phytocompounds worldwide and our scientific knowledge of them comprises the modern field of the “phytosciences.” The phytosciences have been created from the integration of disciplines that have never been linked before, combining diverse areas of economic, social, and political fields, chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, medicine, and agriculture. The field is unique among the biomedical sciences in that instead of testing a hypothesis, in the phytosciences researchers try to determine whether plants commonly used in traditional medicine brings benefits for health and, if so, what their mechanisms of action are.
Despite the common belief that phytocompounds are safe, they all have inherent risks just like synthetic compounds. Thus it is within the scope of the phytosciences to elucidate side-effects, appropriate doses, identify bioactive phytocompounds and ways of extraction and conservation. Besides these, legal aspects regarding regulation of the prescription and commercial sale of medicinal plants are a matter of debate all around the world. The varied regulations in different jurisdictions regarding the prescription and sale of these products add confusion to the formal use of phytocompounds.
As a multidisciplinary science, research in the phytosciences is almost unlimited, which makes it impossible to discuss all aspects of this emerging science in just one page. Therefore, we have focussed here mainly on the antimicrobial activity of bioactive phytocompounds, discussing their use against multidrugresistant (MDR) bacteria and fungi, their mechanisms of action, and their interactions with macromolecules and potential for toxicity in mammalian cells. Technical aspects regarding the development of fast and reliable methods of extraction, high output screening systems, and bioautography of essential oils and crude extracts and fractions have also been discussed. Problems related to the efficacy, stability,drug delivery systems and quality control are also commented on.Overall this chapter aims to provide a better understanding of the modern field of the phytosciences and its application in the world today.