Infantile colic, defined as excessive crying in an otherwise healthy baby, is a distressing phenomenon, but there is little evidence to support the many treatments offered. Several small studies report some benefit from use of a hypoallergenic (protein hydrolysate) formula, maternal diet adjustment (focusing on a low-allergen diet), and reduced stimulation of the infant. While dicyclomine has b...

Verbena officinalis Linn (Verbenaceae), the common verbena or vervain, a traditional herb with immense cultural and medicinal significance in European, Greek, American, Roman Egyptian countries. Phytochemical analysis suggests presence of iridoid glycosides, secoiridoid phenylethanoid flavones, pentacyclic triterpenoids, monoterpenes, sterols their derivatives. Owing to these phytochemicals, wi...

Essential oils are one of the most important natural products derived from plants, due to their various biological properties and their medicinal and nutritional uses. This chapter provides an overview of several different aspects relating to essential oils including a his‐ torical perspective, the uses of essential oils, their main sources and antifungal activity, their bioactive single consti...

People customarily use the extracts of plants known to have antidiarrhoeal effects without any scientific base to explain the action of the extract. For this reason, an investigation was undertaken with a view to determining the efficacy of the effects of the brute aqueous extract (BAE) of the leaves of Psidium guajava (guava), Stachytarpheta cayenensis (bastard vervain), Polygonum punctatum (w...

This study of the New World Verbenoideae concerned evolutionary relationships of genera within the Verbenaceae (subfamily Verbenoideae) based on nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) DNA sequences. The placement of many Verbenacean genera into families have been problematic with many traditional genera being segregated recently into the Lamiaceae. This study included only taxa of ...