Plants as powders, extracts or decoctions are in use in traditional system of medicine, for curing variety of ailments, for many centuries. Currently enormous amount of studies are going on in various laboratories of the globe in chemical and biological evaluation of medicinal plants. The use of certain plants in traditional medicine can now be better understood on the basis of their active constituents. Some plants derived bioactives could be useful as anti-inflammatory or anticancer agents due to their ability to inhibit arachidonate metabolism or protein kinase. Similarly some plants could be beneficial in the treatment of diabetes, hepatitis, filaria or AIDS. Active constituents could be alkaloids, phenols, flavones, xanthones, lignans, terpenes, saponins, unsaturated fatty acids etc. Reviews on such plants have been presented in this volume. Therapeutic potential of silkworm plants, J. curcus, C. cajucara and some aromatic plants have been looked into. Antimicrobial substances from some plants have also received due attention. Present and future of gum arabic (a natural biopolymer), xanthone containing plants of Serbia, edible plants and sweeteners for diabetics have also been described. The contributors are from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and Latin America, where some of the natural flora still exists. Pharmaceutical formulators of herbal drugs, researchers in the field of natural products, pharmacy, biology and pharmacology could find this volume useful.
