Ipomea hederacea Jacq. (kaladana or ivy leaf morning-glory), a member of the family Convolvulaceae, is used primarily for its seeds and recognized for its medicinal properties, especially in Asian countries. This medicinal herb contains various valuable chemical constituents such as ecdysteriods, steroidal glycosides, aromatic acids, triterpenes, amino acids, organic acids, mineral elements and...

Medicinal herbs are increasing in popularity across the world. Consumer sales of herbs and botanicals reached $4.41 billion in 2005 (Nutrition Business Journal 2006). Many medicinal herb products are made from native woodland botanicals that are wild-harvested from natural stands. Most, if not all, of these woodland botanicals can be cultivated commercially. This is beneficial for the conservat...

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 pop...

Phyllanthus amarus Schum. and Thonn., a widely distributed annual medicinal herb has a long history of use in the traditional system of medicine for over 2000 years. However, the lack of genomic data for P. amarus, a non-model organism hinders research at the molecular level. In the present study, high-throughput sequencing technology has been employed to enhance better understanding of this he...

India with its knowledge of rich ancient traditional systems of medicine provides a strong base for the utilization of a large number of plants in general healthcare. Large number of herbal drugs existing in India, very few has been studied systematically so far. Solanum xanthocarpum is an important medicinal herb in Ayurvedic medicine. Various studies indicated that Solanum xanthocarpum posses...

Several hundred plant and herb species that have potential as novel antiviral agents have been studied, with surprisingly little overlap. A wide variety of active phytochemicals, including the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulphides, polyphenolics, coumarins, saponins, furyl compounds, alkaloids, polyines, thiophenes, proteins and peptides have been identified. Some volatile essential oils o...