I. Introduction -- II. Defination, scope, importance and history of development of pharmacognosy.- III. Medicinal, nonmedicinal, biopesticidic, colors and dye yielding plants; secondary metabolites and drug principles; medicinal plants in the systems of traditional medicine.- IV. Drugs, their natural, synthetic and biosynthetic sources -- V. Classification of drugs, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals; proteins, peptides and enzymes as drugs -- VI. Pharmacognosical botany- taxonomy, morphology and anatomy of drug plants -- VII. Pharmacopoeia, herbal monographs and WHO's guide lines -- VIII. Fibers, surgical dressings and bandages of natural origin.-IX. Production and trade of herbal drugs - cultivation, collection, storage and trade of crude drugs; herbal wealth and national economy -- X. Methods of preparation of crude drugs and their evaluation, quality control and standardization. XI. Microscopy in pharmacognosy. XII. Intellectual property -- Bibliography -- Index.

This volume focuses on the importance of therapeutically active compounds of natural origin. Natural materials from plants, microbes, animals, marine organisms and minerals are important sources of modern drugs.  Beginning with two chapters on the development and definition of the interdisciplinary field of pharmacognosy, the volume offers up-to-date information on natural and biosynthetic sources of drugs, classification of crude drugs, pharmacognosical botany, examples of medical application, WHO´s guidelines and intellectual property rights for herbal products.