ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of phytomedicine in drug discovery on the basis of reverse pharmacology. The term phytomedicine (phyto+medicine) was coined by a French physician Henri Leclerc in 1913. Henri Leclerc published Precis de phytotherapie (a handbook of phytotherapy) in 1922. He is credited with yet another publication, die pflanzenheikunde in der Arztlichen Praxis in 1944 (Plant based curative science in Medical Practice). Phytomedicine is defined as a herbal-based traditional medical practice that uses various plant materials in modalities. Phytomedicine is considered to be both preventive and therapeutic in nature and is also referred to as phytotherapy, herbal therapy or medical herbalism. This chapter explains the use of the decoction of Argemone mexicana for the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria and A. mexicana decoction versus artesunate-amodiaquine for the management of malaria in Mali and basis of drug discovery from phytomedicine basis of reverse pharmacology.
