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

The purpose of this book is to discuss several medicinal plants to find wider application in the domain of medicinal, clinical, and pharmaceutical treatment. Recent Advances in Plant-Based, Traditional, and Natural Medicines serves as a useful source of ideas and an inspiration for further cell and molecular biology research toward developing drugs and treatments from these traditional and plant-based remedies.

The book covers a variety of topics and:

‧ Considers the current state of research of traditional and plant-based medicines

‧ Covers the current status of ethnomedicine and medicinal plant discovery

‧ Presents the clinical applications of traditional and plant-based medicines

Subramayam Vemulpad, PhD, is a microbiologist, with research and academic experience in India and Malawi prior to migrating to Australia. He joined Sydney’s Macquarie University in 2000 and currently is an associate professor in the Department of Chiropractic. He teaches medical microbiology, research methods, and biological effects of radiation. He has many years of experience in demystifying science by conducting hands-on science activities for school children in India. He is the current chair of the University Biosafety Committee and has served on a variety of university committees, including Biosafety, Ethics (Human Research) and teaching and learning. Along with co-editor Professor Joanne Jamie, he is co-director of the Indigenous Science Education Program (which won the 2011 Australian Learning and Teaching Council Awards for University Teaching) and the Indigenous Bioresources Research Group at Macquarie University. Professor Vemulpad’s research interests include infectious diseases, plant products as antimicrobial agents, rapid diagnostics, exemplary ethical practices in relation to traditional knowledge ownership, and manual therapy. He has published 75 journal articles and 19 book chapters in these areas.

Joanne Jamie, PhD, was formally trained as a biological/organic chemist at the University of Queensland and at the Australian National University. She entered academia in 1994, following her appointment as lecturer in biological/medicinal chemistry at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, and has been at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, since her appointment in 2000 as senior lecturer in biological chemistry. In her academic positions, Professor Jamie has directed a dynamic research team and conducted teaching in the areas of bioorganic, medicinal, and natural products chemistry. Her current research, based at the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences at Macquarie University, includes investigating the structure and function of medically important human enzymes and designing small molecule inhibitors of them for potential therapeutic use; studies on human lens chemistry to understand age-related nuclear cataract, which is a major cause of human blindness; and collaborative research with indigenous people on traditional knowledge, including investigating medicinal flora, for cultural preservation and drug discovery. With co-editor Professor Subramanyam Vemulpad, she co-directs the Indigenous Bioresources Research Group, and is committed to ensuring that true collaborative partnerships are in place for the indigenous communities they work with, on traditional medicines. Professor Jamie has published journal articles on approaches to working with indigenous people and documentation of their traditional knowledge; bioassay guided isolation and structural elucidation of bioactive compounds from traditional medicinal plants; development of new bioassays, including antimicrobial and enzyme assays for medium throughput screening; isolation, structural elucidation and total synthesis of new human lens (UV) filter compounds and model studies with UV filter compounds and human lens proteins to understand cataract formation; protein expression and purification; identification of proteins with novel function; and design and synthesis of new enzyme inhibitors for therapeutic use.