Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine is the use of plants and plant-derived preparations to prevent and treat illness, drawing on traditional knowledge systems and increasingly on phytochemical and pharmacological investigation. Its therapeutic effects derive from bioactive secondary metabolites, including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpene…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 12 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 103× across the literature 🗓 Reviewed October 2026

Overview

Herbal medicine is the use of plants and plant-derived preparations to prevent and treat illness, drawing on traditional knowledge systems and increasingly on phytochemical and pharmacological investigation. Its therapeutic effects derive from bioactive secondary metabolites, including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, saponins, glycosides, phenolics, and essential oils, which act through antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, hypolipidaemic, and other mechanisms. Within complementary and integrative medicine, herbal remedies are prepared as extracts, infusions, oils, and formulated products, and their study addresses identification of active constituents, standardisation, efficacy, safety, and potential interactions, as well as network-pharmacology approaches that map multi-target actions. Rigorous evaluation is needed because botanical preparations are chemically complex and variable, and adverse effects and contamination are possible. Research published in this area by the journal addresses these themes, including reviews of medicinal plants and their traditional uses, self-medication with herbal products in pregnancy, phytochemical and antioxidant analysis of plant extracts, comparison of plant-derived hypolipidaemic effects with statin therapy, network-pharmacology prediction of plant-compound targets, antifungal activity of essential-oil constituents, and traditional preparations such as Ayurvedic bhasmas. These contributions span pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, and the clinical and traditional use of botanical medicines, reflecting both their potential and the need for evidence-based assessment of efficacy and safety.

Research published in this journal

12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 12 articles above have been cited 103 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Herbal Medicine, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in Alternative Medicine and Mind Body Practices.

Journal editorial board
Akiko Tokinobu · Japan Bruno Bordoni · Italy Ulrike Halsband · Germany

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.