Fundamentals of pharmacognosy and phytotherapy / Michael Heinrich [and three others].

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Importance of plants in modern pharmacy and medicine -- Pharmacognosy and its history : people, plants, and natural products -- General principles of botany : morphology and systematics -- Families yielding important phytopharmaceuticals -- Ethnobotany and ethnopharmacy -- Natural product chemistry -- Methods in natural product chemistry -- Anticancer natural products -- Production, standardization, and quality control -- Toxicity of herbal constituents -- What makes phytomedicines unique? -- Traditional systems of herbal medicine -- Complementary/alternative medicine -- The gastrointestinal and biliary system -- The cardiovascular system -- The respiratory system -- The central nervous system -- Infectious diseases -- The endocrine system -- The reproductive and urinary tracts -- The musculoskeletal system -- The skin -- The eye -- Ear, nose, and orthopharynx -- Miscellaneous supportive and protective therapies for stress, ageing, cancer, and debility

Provides useful and fascinating insights into the history, botany, chemistry, phytotherapy and importance of medicinal plants in some of today's health care systems.