Pharmacological Research on Traditional Herbal Medicines

Hiroshi Watanabe is Director of the Research Institute for Oriental Medicines and Professor of Pharmacology at Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan. His primary research activities focus on natural product pharmacology. Hiroshi Watanabe is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Traditional Medicines and Editor of the Journal of Ethnopharmaco fogy. Takeshi Shibuya is currently President of Tokyo Medical University, where he is also Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology. He holds posts as Visiting Professor at, the University of Illinois College of Medicine, USA; Taipei Medical College; and Chung Shan Medical and Dental University in Taiwan. He is also Honorary Professor at China Medical College, Taiwan. Takeshi Shibuya is well known in the field of neu ropsyco-pharmacology.

This book introduces some of the most pharmacological research on traditional herbal medicines and examines potential and functional applications of these agents in modern healthcare systems. It describes state-of-the-art pharmacological methods of traditional herbal medicines.

1. Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Asthma 2. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Herbal Medicine: Current Research and Their Clinical Application for the Treatment and Prevention of Cancer 3. Rational Use of Medicinal Plants in Primary Health Care 4. Chinese Herbal Medicines: Neuropsychiatrie Disorders and the Dynamics of Cytosolic Ca2+ 5. Pharmacological Study of the Anti-Dementia Effect of Shimotsu-to (Si-Wu-Tang) 6. Experimental Analysis of the Anti-Aging Effect of Panax Ginseng 7. Effects of Vietnamese Ginseng on Psychological Stress-induced Changes in Pharmacological Responses 8. Neurodegenerative and Neuroprotective Actions of Glutamate-related Compounds of Natural Origin 9. Pathopharmacological Evaluation of Bakumondo-to (Maimendongtang) as a Curative for Chronic Inflammatory Airway Diseases 10. Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicines on Blood Rheology 11. Pharmacological Properties of Some Structurally Related Indole Alkaloids Contained in the Asian Herbal Medicine, Hirsutine and Mitragynine, with Special Reference to Their Ca2+ Antagonistic and Opioid-like Effects 12. The Role of Bioactive Polysaccharides in Kampo Medicines 13. Efficacy of Kakkon-to, a Traditional Herbal Medicine, against Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and Influenza Infection in Mice 14. Searching for Anti-HIV Agents among the Traditional Medicines