Aryana Libris

Author : Ebabi Manuchair
Title : Pharmacodynamic basis of herbal medicine
Year : 2007

Link download : Ebabi_Manuchair_-_Pharmacodynamic_basis_of_herbal_medicine.zip

Preface to the First Edition. Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), who used many of the herbal medicines described in this book, lamented, “Life is short, and the art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious; and judgment difficult.” Herbal remedies have become a major component of American health care. Botanicals like ginseng, ma huang, St. John’s wort, and valerian are now household words throughout the world, and the sales of herbal medicine are increasing exponentially. Alternative therapies include acupuncture, energy healing, folk medicines, herbal medicines, homeopathy, massage, and megavitamins, to name only a few. Millions of people in the third world have used and will always use herbal medicines because they believe in them and regard them as “their” medicine, in contrast to the “allopathic” (conventional Western) system of medicine brought in from “outside.” These medicinal herbs are available locally and are prescribed by traditional practitioners of medicine who are part of the community and in whose presence the patient feels comfortable. In Western countries, there is now an increased use of herbal medicines, largely because of a belief that powerful synthetic agents used in Western medicine can exert more unwanted side effects and are too often used indiscriminately and irrationally. Many of our present medicines are derived directly or indirectly from higher plants. Although several classic plant drugs have lost much ground to synthetic competitors, others have gained a new investigational or therapeutic status in recent years. In addition, a number of novel plant-derived substances have entered into Western drug markets. The word pharmacodynamic may be defined as the study of the actions and effects of drugs on organ, tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels. Therefore, pharmacodynamics provides us with information about how drugs bring about their beneficial effects and how they cause their side effects. By understanding and applying the knowledge gained in studying pharmacodynamics, physicians and other members of the health-care delivery team are able to provide effective and safe therapeutic care to their patients. Western physicians prescribing synthetic drugs may want to believe in herbal medicines and use them in their patients, but wish to see scientific documentation as they have learned in their pharmacology and therapeutic courses in medical school. Eastern physicians yearn to find out how their drugs, proven efficacious for thousands of years in ancient civilizations such as Chinese, Indian, Persian, and Egyptian, work and bring about their beneficial effects. ...