ABSTRACT
The use of herbal ingredients and plant extracts for their pharmacological properties dates back to the earliest human endeavors in medicinal chemistry. Indeed, a number of pharmacological agents in use today are a direct outcome of these remarkable observations. With the rapid advances made over the last two decades in biomedical research, there has been an unprecedented interest in unraveling the magical properties ofsome of the commonly used natural products. Thanks to modern technology, chemists and biologists today are extremely well equipped in the art of identifying and screening the biological activities of plant and herbal ingredients. As a result, many of these natural products are under scrutiny for their clinical potential, in terms of both disease prevention and treatment.
