Chapters authored
Medicinal Plants and Natural Products with Demonstrated Wound Healing Properties
This section reviews the current literature on medicinal plants including extracts, fractions, isolated compounds and natural products that have been demonstrated to have wound healing properties. Various electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, SciFinder and Google Scholar were employed to search for plants, natural plant constituents and natural products that have been scientifically demonstrated to have wound healing activity using in vivo and in vitro wound models. Parameters used in the evaluation of an agent with wound healing properties include rate of wound contraction, tensile strength, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, hydroxyproline content assay and histological investigations including re-epithelization, collagen synthesis, granulation, proliferation and differentiation of fibroblasts and keratinocytes in excision and incision wound model studies. Eighty-five medicinal plants belonging to 45 families, phytoconstituents including phenolics, oils and other substances including honey were identified as potential wound healing agents or possess wound healing properties using various wound healing models.
Part of the book: Wound Healing
Medicinal Plants Used as Galactagogues
The recommended diet for human infants within the first 6 months of life is breast milk. No other natural or artificial formulation has been able to match up to this gold standard. Mothers who have attempted to pursue exclusive breastfeeding can, however, attest to numerous nutritional and non-nutritional challenges mainly resulting in insufficient milk production (hypogalactia) or the absence of milk production (agalactia). There are very few and officially recommended orthodox drugs to increase lactation. The most widely used galactagogues being chlorpromazine, sulpiride, metoclopramide and domperidone are associated with very high incidences of unpleasant side effects including their extra-pyramidal effects in both mother and infant. There is therefore a need to keep searching for more acceptable galactagogues. This section reviews current literature on medicinal plants used within the local Ghanaian community to enhance lactation. Various electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, SciFinder and Google Scholar as well as published books on Ghanaian medicinal plants were searched. A total of 22 plants belonging to 13 families were reviewed with regards to their medicinal values, information on lactation and toxicity.
Part of the book: Pharmacognosy