Contents: Historical use of traditional medicines: Traditional medicine worldwide: Brief history of some indigenous medical systems -- African traditional medicine -- Indian traditional medicine(Ayurvedic medicine) Middle eastern traditional medicine -- Australian and Southeast Asian traditional medicine -- North, Central, and South American traditional medicine -- European medicine -- Modern medicine -- Development of pharmacology -- Herbal medicine today -- The Challenges of standardisation and regulation -- Ethnopharmacology and plant-derived medicines: Ethnobotany -- The Ethnopharmacological approach -- Aspirin: an example of ethnopharmacological discovery -- The Story of hoodia -- Importance of ethnomedically derived natural products in modern medicine -- Phytochemistry and phytopharmacology of archetypal plant metabolites: Types of plant metabolites -- Examples of simple phenols and phenolic glycosides -- Arachidonic acid metabolism -- Coumarins -- Glucosinolates -- Cyanogenic glycosides -- Cardiac glycosides -- Saponins(latin sapo means soap) -- Anthraquinones -- Phytooestrogens -- Flavonoids -- Anthocyanins(Greek: antho-, flower; kyanos, blue) -- Tannins -- Alkanoids -- Gums and mucilage -- Acrid principles -- Bitter principles -- Phytotherapeutics of systems dysfunction: The Herbal therapeutic approach -- The Cardiovascular system -- The Respiratory system -- The Endocrine and metabolic system -- The Immune system -- The Lymphatic system -- The Nervous system -- the Musculoskeletal system -- The Gastrointestinal system -- The Skin -- What is the genitourinary system? -- Male reproductive system -- Urinary system -- Genotourinary and skin cancers -- Herbal treatment for cancer patients -- What are infectious diseases?: African trypanosomiasis( sleeping sickness) -- Cholera -- Dengue fever -- Japanese encephalitis -- Hepatitis -- Human immunodeficiency virus -- Leishmaniasis -- Malaria -- Measles -- Meningitis -- Onchocerciasis -- Schistosomiasis -- Tuberculosis -- Yellow fever.