There is an increasing interest in natural plant products as a source of new pharmaceuticals and other biologically-active compounds. This is a timely review of the latest advances and trends in a field which is becoming a commercially significant area of investigation for the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmacological and phytochemical aspects of different preparations from vegetable sources is a truly interdisciplinary field and this book includes information on ethnopharmacology, selection, isolation and structure determination of plant-derived natural products. Many examples of different bioassays (in vitro and in vivo test systems) and pharmacological tests are given, providing the reader with an insight of what is presently possible in the study of bioactive plant material.