Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the World for Aging: Botany, Ethnopharmacology, Natural Products, and Molecular Pathways

It gives me significant pleasure to write a foreword to Christophe Wiart’s latest compendium covering plant-related treatments for “premature ageing’. This is an area that has not been covered to any significant extent in translated treatises based on TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) or Ayurvedic-derived treatments (Indian subcontinent and contiguous areas). Ageing includes loss of cognition and includes dementia, which are frequently obvious to relatives of the “patient” and have been treated for centuries in many parts of the world. This treatise covers the areas that “modern-day” natural product chemists and pharmacognosists would search in order to identify the active principles involved in the “treatment modalities” covered in the text. He has used indigenous lore to identify the plant(s) and/or their components and subsequent treatment, covering over 100 medicinal plants. What is of definite utility is the listing of the different names ascribed to a plant depending upon the sources of the information. This is a point that is frequently overlooked when describing a medicinal plant, since cross-referencing the name(s) used in different languages permits one to search current databases for information. Another “plus” is his linkage of identified plant entities to information as to their “formal toxicities” which in some cases link-back to identified chemical entities. This part of the overall dataset should not stop any scientific work on the components that are described, since today, methods of delivery of toxic agents are well defined and used. Therefore, I definitely recommend this handbook to anyone who is interested in potential treatments for premature ageing, be they scientific or medical professionals or people who are interested in the topic for general interest. David J. Newman, DPhil (Retired Chief, Natural Products Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA) It gives me significant pleasure to write a foreword to Christophe Wiart’s latest compendium covering plant-related treatments for “premature ageing’. This is an area that has not been covered to any significant extent in translated treatises based on TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) or Ayurvedic-derived treatments (Indian subcontinent and contiguous areas). Ageing includes loss of cognition and includes dementia, which are frequently obvious to relatives of the “patient” and have been treated for centuries in many parts of the world. This treatise covers the areas that “modern-day” natural product chemists and pharmacognosists would search in order to identify the active principles involved in the “treatment modalities” covered in the text. He has used indigenous lore to identify the plant(s) and/or their components and subsequent treatment, covering over 100 medicinal plants. What is of definite utility is the listing of the different names ascribed to a plant depending upon the sources of the information. This is a point that is frequently overlooked when describing a medicinal plant, since cross-referencing the name(s) used in different languages permits one to search current databases for information. Another “plus” is his linkage of identified plant entities to information as to their “formal toxicities” which in some cases link-back to identified chemical entities. This part of the overall dataset should not stop any scientific work on the components that are described, since today, methods of delivery of toxic agents are well defined and used. Therefore, I definitely recommend this handbook to anyone who is interested in potential treatments for premature ageing, be they scientific or medical professionals or people who are interested in the topic for general interest. David J. Newman, DPhil (Retired Chief, Natural Products Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA)