Preface

The concept of phytotherapy is as old as mankind. During the last decades, it has become evident that there exist several plants with therapeutic potential, and it is increasingly being accepted that phytotherapy could offer potential lead compounds in the drug discovery/development process. The interest in phytotherapy could be associated with secondary metabolites that could act individually, additively, or in synergy to improve health and wellbeing. Indeed, medicinal plants, unlike conventional drugs, commonly have bioactive constituents working together catalytically and synergistically to produce a combined effect that may surpass the total activity of the individual constituents. The combined actions of these metabolites tend to increase the activity of the main constituent by speeding up or slowing down its metabolism in the body. Also, the secondary metabolites might minimize the rate of undesired adverse effects, and have an additive, potentiating, or antagonistic effect.

The book offers evidence-based mechanistic views on complementary and alternative medicine with a focus on biological mechanisms of action of plant secondary metabolites in degenerative and microbial diseases such as diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, antimicrobial resistance, etc., while reporting health benefits. The chapters are written by enviable scholars, lecturers, and experts in indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), industrial and medicinal plants, phytotherapeutics, and phytoinformatics. Therapeutic Uses of Plant Secondary Metabolites is timely and highly valuable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers and professionals in IKS, phytomedicine, ethnopharmacology, phytopharmacology, plant biotechnology, drug discovery and development, and phytotherapeutics.