BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS IN PHYTOMEDICINE Edited by Iraj Rasooli Bioactive Compounds in Phytomedicine Edited by Iraj Rasooli Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Masa Vidovic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team Image Copyright anelina, 2011. DepositPhotos First published December, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected] Bioactive Compounds in Phytomedicine, Edited by Iraj Rasooli p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-805-2 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Part 1 Herbal Therapy 1 Chapter 1 Selecting Medicinal Plants for Development of Phytomedicine and Use in Primary Health Care 3 Wagner Luiz Ramos Barbosa, Myrth Soares do Nascimento, Lucianna do Nascimento Pinto, Fernando Luiz Costa Maia, Antonio Jorge Ataíde Sousa, José Otávio Carréra Silva Júnior, Maurícia Melo Monteiro and Danilo Ribeiro de Oliveira Chapter 2 Hepatoprotective Effect of Zanthoxylum armatum DC 25 Nitin Verma and Rattan Lal Khosa Chapter 3 Current Status: Mexican Medicinal Plants with Insecticidal Potential 39 Ludmila Elisa Guzmán-Pantoja, Laura P. Lina-García, Graciela Bustos-Zagal and Víctor M. Hernández-Velázquez Part 2 Phytochemicals and Bioactive Compounds 67 Chapter 4 Standardization of Herbal Drugs Derivatives with Special Reference to Brazilian Regulations 69 Wagner Luiz Ramos Barbosa, Lucianna do Nascimento Pinto, Luiz Cláudio Silva Malheiros, Patricia Miriam Sayuri Sato Barros, Christian Barbosa de Freitas, Jose Otavio Carrera Silva Junior, Sandra Gallori and Franco Francesco Vincieri Chapter 5 The Phytochemical and In Vitro Pharmacological Testing of Maltese Medicinal Plants 93 Everaldo Attard and Pierpaolo Pacioni Chapter 6 Phytochemicals Components as Bioactive Foods 113 Aicha Olfa Cherif VI Contents Chapter 7 Diosgenin, a Steroid Saponin Constituent of Yams and Fenugreek: Emerging Evidence for Applications in Medicine 125 Jayadev Raju and Chinthalapally V. Rao Chapter 8 Polyphenols as Adaptogens – The Real Mechanism of the Antioxidant Effect? 143 David E. Stevenson Chapter 9 Erythrina, a Potential Source of Chemicals from the Neotropics 163 R. Marcos Soto-Hernández, Rosario García-Mateos, Rubén San Miguel-Chávez, Geoffrey Kite, Mariano Martínez-Vázquez and Ana C. Ramos-Valdivia Chapter 10 Zanthoxylum Genus as Potential Source of Bioactive Compounds 185 L. Oscar Javier Patiño, R. Juliet Angélica Prieto and S. Luis Enrique Cuca Preface Individuals are increasingly taking personal responsibility over their health, both in the prevention and treatment of disease. This is particularly true for a wide variety of chronic or incurable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis or acute illnesses readily treated at home like common cold. During the last fifty years the practice of herbalism has become mainstream throughout the world. This is due in part to the recognition of the value of traditional medical systems, particularly of Asian origin, and the identification of medicinal plants from indigenous pharmacopeias that have been shown to have significant healing power, either in their natural state or as the source of new pharmaceuticals. When mixtures of several crude extracts are used in formulations, enhancement of the beneficial effects or greater toxicity is expected through either synergistic amplification or diminishment of possible adverse side effects. It is also presumed that their combination could prevent the gradual decline in efficacy that is frequently observed when single drugs are given over long periods of time. Nowadays such remedies can still be found in ethnic and health food stores, but are also available in pharmacies and grocery stores. Unfortunately there is no universal regulatory system that ensures that these remedies are what they say they are, do what is claimed, or most importantly, are safe. Many patients with chronic allergic conditions seek complementary and alternative medicine therapies. This trend has begun to attract interest from mainstream health care providers and scientific investigators and has stimulated government agencies to provide support and guidance for the scientific investigation of complementary and alternative medicine. This effort may lead to improved therapies and better health care/patient outcomes. This book presents an update on the most promising herbal remedies. The objectives of this book were to determine the bioactivities of herbal medicines by giving some examples of recent research outputs. Results of this study are aimed toward helping avoid potential drug-herb interactions; helping decision makers to decide on the proper policies in the medical and the non-medical fields concerning herbal remedies and other types of complementary and alternative medicine. Prof. Iraj Rasooli Department of Biology, Shahed University, Tehran-Qom Express way, Iran Part 1 Herbal Therapy 1 Selecting Medicinal Plants for Development of Phytomedicine and Use in Primary Health Care Wagner Luiz Ramos Barbosa1 et al.* 1Universidade Federal do Pará Brazil 1. Introduction The world market for herbal medicines is around US$ 40 billion, whereas in Brazil it is estimated to be around US$ 1 billion. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that more than a half of the world population makes use of some type of medicinal herb searching for relief for painful or unpleasant symptoms. From that total at least 30% are provided by medical prescription (WHO, 1978). The application of traditional or popular knowledge about the use of healing plants, in the development of herbal drugs proves to be a fairly consequent and consistent strategy, as it can generate employment and income from the participation of the organized community in the process of development, production and insertion of the so developed product in the pharmaceutical market. It still may be appropriate from an ecological standpoint, when the botanical raw material for the production of this herbal medicine is obtained from specimens grown in deforested areas. When a project with this design is originated and developed in the scope of Pharmaceutical Sciences it is called an Ethnopharmaceutical study (BARBOSA, 1998). Since 2006, the Popular Phytotherapy became a therapeutical option supported by the Brazilian government, through the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices (BRAZIL, 2006). After that, new regulatory documents have been promulgated to standardize the use of medicinal herbs. The National Policy on Phytopharmaceuticals and Medicinal Plants in its guidelines, establishes that a list of regional plants is to be defined, representing the Regional Popular Phytotherapy (BRAZIL, 2006b). These policies advocate the inclusion of the use of medicinal plants in primary health care, which shall be employed with highest efficacy and safety and must be object of the actions of Pharmaceutical Services, which are also to be applied to manufactured drugs (BARBOSA & PINTO, 2005). * Myrth Soares do Nascimento1, Lucianna do Nascimento Pinto1, Fernando Luiz Costa Maia1, Antonio Jorge Ataíde Sousa1, José Otávio Carréra Silva Júnior1, Maurícia Melo Monteiro2 and Danilo Ribeiro de Oliveira3 2Universidade do Estado do Pará, Brazil 3Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 4 Bioactive Compounds in Phytomedicine The National Policy on Phytopharmaceuticals and Medicinal Plants (BRAZIL, 2006b) has the overall objective “to ensure the Brazilian population the safe access and rational use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines.” The Pharmaceutical Sciences can contribute strongly to this purpose, attending the first specific objective of the document, "expand the therapeutic options for users with guaranteed access to medicinal plants, herbal medicines and services related to herbal medicine, with safety, efficacy and quality regarding the integrality of health care, considering the traditional knowledge about medicinal plants.” Achieving this goal requires the combination of elements of Pharmaceutical Sciences such as Pharmaceutical Care and Quality Control,