Ben-Erik van Wyk - Medicinal Plants of the World

The aim of this book is to give the reader a birds eye view of more than 350 of the best-known medicinal plants of the world and their uses, in a compact, colourful and scientifically accurate reference text. A comprehensive review of each species was not our aim (this would have required several thousand pages) but rather a user-friendly guide to quickly find accurate answers to the most obvious questions: Where does this plant originate? What does it look like? In which culture is it traditionally used? What is it used for? Which chemical compounds does it contain? How safe is it? What is known about its pharmacological activity? What evidence is there that it is effective? We also provide short overviews of the various health conditions for which medicinal plants are used and the active compounds (secondary metabolites) found in the plants and their modes of actions.

Since maximum user-friendliness was our aim, species are arranged alphabetically by their scientific names (not by their family or drug names). The most commonly used vernacular names are given in several languages, together with well-known botanical synonyms. The regulatory STATUS of each plant is also given whether it is listed in one or more pharmacopoeias (abbreviated as pharm.), including the new European Pharmacopoeia (abbreviated as PhEur8), the German Commission E monographs, the new ESCOP monographs of the European Community, the World Health Organisations series of monographs and HMPC monographs of the European Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (all species treated in the last-mentioned four works will be found in this book). If efficacy has been proven in human clinical trials, this is also indicated. In order to have as wide a coverage as possible, a summary table of more than 900 species was added, and a few plants have been treated as main species despite a lack of good photographs of flowers or fruits. We also thought it would be useful to cover those plants that are sources of medically important chemical compounds they are not really used as plant drugs and are therefore often excluded from books on medicinal plants.

The subject of medicinal plants is a highly active field of scientific study all over the world. Ongoing research, including name changes, makes it virtually impossible to keep up to date with all aspects of this vast topic. Furthermore, some species may actually have become more important than we are aware of, while others are now merely of historical interest. Corrections, criticism, additions and offers of high-quality original photographs would therefore be highly appreciated and can be sent to any of the authors.

The first edition of this book was published more than 10 years ago. The need therefore arose for a complete revision in order to reflect modern developments and to include new scientific data that have become available in recent years. This new and enlarged edition includes 28 new monographs of species and more than 230 new photographs.

Medicinal plants are an important part of human history, culture and tradition. Let us not be too sceptical about seemingly outrageous claims that are sometimes made about particular plants. Several centuries ago, lime fruits were given to British seamen who miraculously recovered from the symptoms of scurvy. It took science about 200 years to find out why (the discovery of vitamin C). It is likely that some traditional medicinal plants included here hold the key to new advances of great importance to human health. We hope that this book will be found useful as a quick reference guide to medicinal plants of the world and that it will stimulate and inspire health care practitioners, students and anyone else interested in medicinal plants to find out more about this fascinating subject.

Ben-Erik van Wyk

Michael Wink

February 2017