The full colour, beautifully illustrated Modern Medicines from Plants: Botanical histories of some of modern medicine's most important drugs features information on plants from which we obtain modern prescription medicines. It outlines their historical uses as herbal medicines in the past two millennia, using primary sources, and describes how extracts from them, and their semisynthetic and synthetic derivatives, were developed to be today's therapeutic drugs and diagnostic chemicals. This book describes medicinal plants and their habitats, the diseases that their medicines treat, and the science of how they work.

This amazing and unique book is a wonderful read for those with an interest in both herbal and prescription medicines. Written with authority by physicians and gardeners at the Garden of Medicinal Plants at the Royal College of Physicians, London, chapters detail the history and modern scientific research on plants and their medicines. It is very useful to physicians, pharmacists, herbalists, historians and gardeners, bringing together information from every discipline to make it a work of interest as well as reference.

Features

- Written for people interested in medicinal plants, where medicines come from, and how they treat our diseases.

- Contains information on 50 plants, mostly growing in the medicinal garden of the Royal College of Physicians in London, describing how they became the source of modern pharmaceutical medicines.

- Describes medicinal uses of plants in Classical Greece as written by Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen, through the flowering of Arabic medicine by physicians such as Paulus Aegineta, Mesue and Avicenna to the 12th to 14th century compilations of Serapion and Sylvaticus and the European Renaissance of Peter Treveris, William Turner, Leonard Fuchs, Pietro Mattioli, John Gerarde, John Parkinson, Nicholas Culpeper, and many others to the pharmacopoeias of the 16th century to the present day.

- Fully referenced including a glossary for explanation of technical terms.

Introduction 1. Ammi majus ammi, false Queen Anne's lace, bullwort, bishop's weed, herb william ethoxsalen (8-methoxypsoralen) 2. Artemisia annua sweet wormwood, annual wormwood, Qing-Hao artemesinin and derivatives 3. Atropa belladonna deadly nightshade; Datura stramonium Jimson weed; and Mandragora, Hyoscyamus, Brugmansia, Scopolia atropine and hyoscine 4. Betula pendula silver birch - -sitosterol 5. Camellia sinensis - tea; Coffea arabica coffee; Theobroma cacao chocolate caffeine, theophylline 6. Camptotheca acuminata camptotheca camptothecin, topotecan and irinotecan 7. Capsicum annuum chilli pepper capsaicin 8. Catharanthus roseus Madagascar periwinkle, Cayenne Jasmine, old maid, rosy periwinkle vincristine, vinblastine 9. Cephalotaxus harringtonia Chinese plum yew harringtonine 10. Chondrodendron tomentosum curare vine tubocurarine 11. Cinchona species quinine tree, Jesuit's bark, Peruvian bark quinine, quinidine 12. Citrus x limon lemon vitamin C 13. Colchicum autumnale meadow saffron, autumn crocus, naked ladies colchicine 14. Digitalis purpurea purple foxglove digitoxin; Digitalis lanata woolly foxglove digoxin 15. Dioscorea polystachya yam; Glycine max soybean steroids 16. Ephedra sinica Joint pine, Mormon tea ephedrine, ecstasy 17. Erythroxylum coca coca bush cocaine 18. Euphorbia peplus common spurge ingenol mebutate 19. Galanthus nivalis snowdrop galantamine 20. Galega officinalis goat's rue phenformin, metformin 21. Glycyrrhiza glabra liquorice carbenoxolone, glycyrrhizic acid 22. Guaiacum officinale roughbark lignum-vitae, guaiacwood alpha-guaiaconic acid 23. Hordeum jubatum foxtail barley; Arundo donax giant reed lignocaine (lidocaine) and derivatives 24. Hordeum vulgare, Claviceps purpurea common barley, ergot ergometrine, ergotamine 25. Hydrangea febrifuga Asian hydrangea, Chinese quinine febrifugine, methaqualone, halofuginone 26. Illicium verum Chinese star anise; I. anisatum Japanese Star Anise oseltamivir 27. Inula helenium elecampane, enula, horseheal, scabwort, wild sunflower inulin 28. Melilotus officinalis melilot, ellow weet clover, king's clover, yellow melilot warfarin 29. Morus alba white mulberry miglustat, miglitol 30. Nicotiana tabacum tobacco nicotine, with a note on Lobelia lobeline, and Laburnum anagyroides cytisine 31. Papaver rhoeas corn or Flander's poppy rhoeadine, thebaine, oxycodone, etorphine and other derivatives 32. Papaver somniferum opium poppy morphine, codeine, noscapine, protopine 33. Physostigma venenosum Calabar bean physostigmine 34. Pilocarpus microphyllus jaborandi pilocarpine 35. Podophyllum peltatum Mayapple, American mandrake, Ground lemon; Podophyllum hexandrum Himalayan mayapple podophyllotoxin, etoposide, teniposide 36. Rauvolfia serpentina snake root reserpine 37. Salix alba willow; Filipendula ulmaria meadowsweet; Gaultheria procumbens wintergreen aspirin, salicylic acid and methyl salicylate 38. Silybum marianum milk thistle silymarin, Legalon-SIL 39. Tanacetum cineriifolium pyrethrum, Dalmation chrysanthemum pyrethrins 40. Taxus baccata European yew; Taxus brevifolia Pacific yew paclitaxel and derivatives 41. Valeriana officinalis valerian sodium valproate 42. Veratrum album, V. nigrum false hellebores protoveratrine V. californicum cyclopamine and sonidegib 43. Visnaga daucoides khella nifedipine, amiodarone, sodium cromoglicate, nedocromil sodium 44. Excipients and Solvents 45. Vitamins