Iinuma, Munekazu

Khan, Ikhlas A.

Shibata, Masa-Aki

Shirai, Tomoyuki

English

PubMed

Masa-Aki Shibata

Ikhlas A. Khan

Munekazu Iinuma

Tomoyuki Shirai

Crossref

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of Biomedicine and BiotechnologyVolume 2012, Article ID 147120, 1 pagedoi:10.1155/2012/147120EditorialNatural Products for MedicineMasa-Aki Shibata,1 Ikhlas A. Khan,2 Munekazu Iinuma,3 and Tomoyuki Shirai41 Laboratory of Anatomy and Histopathology, Faculty of Health Science, Osaka Health Science University, Osaka 530-0043, Japan2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, MS 38677, USA3Laboratory of Pharmacognosy, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu 501-1196, Japan4Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya 467-8601, JapanCorrespondence should be addressed to Masa-Aki Shibata, masaaki.shibata@ohsu.ac.jpReceived 15 March 2012; Accepted 15 March 2012Copyright © 2012 Masa-Aki Shibata et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.Throughout human history, natural products—includingterrestrial plants, animal products, marine organisms, andproducts of microorganismal fermentation—have been usedin traditional medicines. This historical experience withnatural products as therapeutic agents has evolved to sophis-ticated isolation of active chemical entities from ethnophar-macological plants with the eﬀect that, in modern medicine,natural products are increasingly the primary sources in earlydrug discovery.The population is aging in many modern societies andis linked to steadily increasing morbidity rates of cancerand cerebrovascular disease, thus mandating the importanceof better preventive as well as therapeutic options. Manymedically advanced societies are exploring the adjunctive useof western and oriental medicine alternatives, enhancing thedemand for natural products. While evidence-based data isstill scant in the field of alternative medicines, in this specialissue we have the pleasure of sharing with our readersmany scientific articles on natural products with potentialmedicinal use.This special issue contains 6 review articles and 19 origi-nal peer-reviewed papers. The reviews included summarizesuch diverse topics as the biological and pharmacologicaleﬀects of ginsenoside Rb1, isolated from red ginseng root, onskin damage (Y. Kimura et al.); tumor suppression in animalsby a fruit pulp containing high amounts of β-cryptoxanthinand hesperidin (T. Tanaka et al.); the favorable eﬀectsof purple corn flower in treatment of infectious diseases(J. B. Hudson); the biomechanisms and clinical outcomeof Rhus verniciflia extract in patients (W. Choi et al.);the safety of cruciferous plant extracts (O. Scott et al.);and the antitumor activity of artemisinin and its analogs(M. P. Crespo-Ortiz and M. Q. Wei). The original arti-cles embrace a wide variety of topics, such as apoptosis,suppression of cell proliferation and tumorigenesis (Y. Huet al., H. Kurose et al., A. Lerner et al., Booth et al.,Kita et al., Mohd et al., and G. M. Geetha et al.),the antibacterial/antifungal/anti-inflammation/antioxidativecharacteristics of natural extracts (E. Biazar et al., Y.-S. Leeet al., Y. Hu et al., A. Cha et al., H. Sun et al., and P.-F. Kao et al.), cardiovascular activity of specific naturalproducts (K. Awang et al.), the eﬀects of extracts on bloodparameter levels in diabetic patients (T. Klangjareonchai andC. Roongpisuthipong), examination of isolation techniques(N. A. Mahyudin et al.), enzymatic activity (B. Elya et al.)and metabolism of certain extracts (Y. Shimoda et al.); andspecific eﬀects of some natural products on aryl hydrocarbonreceptor expression (H. M. Korashy et al.).We would like to thank the authors for their timelycontributions. Finally, we also thank all reviewers for theirhard work questioning, pruning, and refining these articles.Masa-Aki ShibataIkhlas A. KhanMunekazu IinumaTomoyuki ShiraiSubmit your manuscripts athttp://www.hindawi.comPainResearch and TreatmentHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.comVolume 2014ToxinsJournal ofVaccinesJournal ofHindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014AntibioticsInternational Journal ofToxicologyJournal ofHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014StrokeResearch and TreatmentHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Drug DeliveryJournal ofHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Advances in Pharmacological SciencesTropical MedicineJournal ofHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Medicinal ChemistryInternational Journal ofHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014AddictionJournal ofHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014BioMed Research InternationalEmergency Medicine InternationalHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 Autoimmune DiseasesHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 Anesthesiology Research and PracticeScientificaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014Journal ofHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014PharmaceuticsHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014MEDIATORSINFLAMMATIONof

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