Recent Advances in Plant-Based, Traditional, and Natural Medicines

Introduction; Part 1: Relevance of Traditional Knowledge to Biological Testing ; The Relevance of Traditional Knowledge Systems for Ethnopharmacological Research: Theoretical and Methodological Contributions; Victoria Reyes-Garcia; Antioxidative and in vitro Antiproliferative Activity of Arctium lappa Root Extracts; Fabricia S. Predes, Ana L.T.G Ruiz, Joao E. Carvalho, Mary A. Foglio, and Heidi Dolder; Interleukin-6 and Cyclooxygenase-2 Down-regulation by Fatty-Acid Fractions of Ranunculus constantinopolitanus; Sabreen F. Fostok, Rima A. Ezzeddine, Fadia R. Homaidan, Jamal A. Al-Saghir, Ralph G. Salloum, Najat A. Saliba, and Rabih S. Talhouk; An Extract of the Medicinal Mushroom Agaricus blazei Murill Can Protect Against Allergy; Linda K. Ellertsen and Geir Hetland; Anti-Oxidative Effects of the Biennial Flower of Panax notoginseng Against H2O2-Induced Cytotoxicity in Cultured PC12 Cells; Roy Chi-Yan Choi, Zhiyong Jiang, Heidi Qun Xie, Anna Wing-Han Cheung, David Tai-Wai Lau, Qiang Fu, Tina Tingxia Dong, Jijun Chen, Zhengtao Wang, and Karl Wah-Keung Tsim; Cytotoxic Activity of Proteins Isolated from Extracts of Corydalis cava Tubers in Human Cervical Carcinoma HeLa Cells; Robert Nawrot, Maria Wolun-Cholewa, Wojciech Bialas, Danuta Wyrzykowska, Stanislaw Balcerkiewicz, and Anna Gozdzicka-Jozefiak; Arctigenin from Arctium lappa Inhibits Interleukin-2 and Interferon Gene Expression in Primary Human T Lymphocytes; Wei-Jern Tsai, Chu-Ting Chang, Guei-Jane Wang, Tzong-Huei Lee, Shwu-Fen Chang, Shao-Chun Lu, and Yuh-Chi Kuo; Part 2: Targeting Important Diseases Using Natural Products (TK or non-TK based); A New Dawn for the Use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Cancer Therapy; Harendra S. Parekh, Gang Liu, and Ming Q. Wei; Anti Cancer Effects of Curcumin: Cycle of Life and Death; Gaurisankar Sa and Tanya Das; Comparative Study of the Antioxidant and Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Properties in the Extracts of the Fruits of Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica, and Emblica officinalis; Bibhabasu Hazra, Rhitajit Sarkar, Santanu Biswas, and Nripendranath Mandal; Inhibition of Highly Productive HIV-1 Infection in T cells, Primary Human Macrophages, Microglia, and Astrocytes by Sargassum fusiforme; Elena E. Paskaleva, Xudong Lin, Wen Li, Robin Cotter, Michael T. Klein, Emily Roberge, Er K. Yu, Bruce Clark, Jean-Claude Veille, Yanze Liu, David Y-W Lee, and Mario Canki; Part 3: Molecular Biology, Genomics, and Proteomics: Plant Centered and Person Centered; The Use of Phylogeny to Interpret Cross-Cultural Patterns in Plant Use and Guide Medicinal Plant Discovery: An Example from Pterocarpus (Leguminosae); C. Haris Saslis-Lagoudakis, Bente B. Klitgaard, Felix Forest, Louise Francis, Vincent Savolainen, Elizabeth M. Williamson, and Julie A. Hawkins; Ethnobotany Genomics: Discovery and Innovation in a New Era of Exploratory Research; Steven G. Newmaster and Subramanyam Ragupathy; Prescriptions of Traditional Chinese Medicine Are Specific to Cancer Types and Adjustable to Temperature Changes; Pei-Hsun Chiu, Hsin-Ying Hsieh, and Sun-Chong Wang; Part 4: Personalized or Person-Centered Medicine; Traditional, Complementary, and Alternative Medical Systems and Their Contribution to Personalization, Prediction, and Prevention in Medicine: Person-Centered Medicine; Paolo Roberti di Sarsina, Mauro Alivia, and Paola Guadagni; Index