ABSTRACT
Herbal medicines have been used for a long time for the treatment of many different diseases. To date, there is a growing interest in research on plants traditionally used as folk medicines; the research is aimed to scienti‹cally evaluate the potential use of a given plant or compound for treating a particular illness as well as to examine its potential bene‹ts in clinical practice. Most plants or compounds need further and larger carefully conducted studies to con‹rm the preliminarily indicated pharmacological activities of the herbals. The plants of Phyllanthus, one of the largest genera in the family Phyllanthaceae, are widely distributed in most tropical and subtropical countries and have long been used in folk remedies to treat kidney and urinary bladder disturbances, intestinal infections, diabetes, and hepatitis B. Supporting such a traditional use of Phyllanthus, substantial progress on their chemistry and
19.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 289 19.2 Immunomodulatory Effects ..........................................................................290
