Overview
- Editors:
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H. Wagner
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Institut für pharmazeutische Biologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany
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Table of contents (13 chapters)
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- Hildebert Wagner, Stefan Kraus, Ksenija Jurcic
Pages 1-39
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- Andreas C. Emmendörffer, Hildebert Wagner, Marie-Luise Lohmann-Matthes
Pages 89-104
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- Dieter Melchart, Klaus Linde
Pages 105-118
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- Luc A. C. Pieters, Tess E. De Bruyne, Arnold J. Vlietinck
Pages 137-160
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- Haruki Yamada, Hiroaki Kiyohara
Pages 161-202
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- Yukiko Y. Maeda, Goro Chihara
Pages 203-221
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- Rainer Samtleben, Tibor Hajto, Katarina Hostanska, Hildebert Wagner
Pages 223-241
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- Marie-Aleth Lacaille-Dubois
Pages 243-272
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- Eikai Kyo, Naoto Uda, Shigeo Kasuga, Yoichi Itakura, Hiromichi Sumiyoshi
Pages 273-288
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- Sharadini A. Dahanukar, Urmila M. Thatte, Nirmala N. Rege
Pages 289-323
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- Pei-Gen Xiao, Chang-Xiao Liu
Pages 325-356
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Back Matter
Pages 357-372
About this book
The human immune system, despite having its own sophisticated defence mecha nisms, is inferior to bacteria and viruses with respect to adaptability. Furthermore, our immune system is increasingly exposed to detrimental effects, that is immuno suppressive environmental consequences, unhealthy living, and chronic illnesses. Excessive chemotherapy threatens our immune system even further. This situation demands compensatory prophylactic therapeutic regimes. One of these - specific immunostimulation - is more difficult to achieve than the immunosuppression cur rently used in transplantation surgery and the medical treatment of autoimmune dis eases. The earliest attempts to develop suitable medication for immunostimulation were based on traditional remedies which embodied the accumulated experience of several centuries. Medicinal plants are already being used prophylactically as stan dardized and efficacy-optimized preparations for the treatment of various recur rent infections, or in combination with chemotherapeutics in standard medical practice. In order to rationally apply immunostimulants of plant origin, however, it is necessary to search for the active principles of these substances and to produce them in a pure form. Because suitable screening methods have become available only recently, research in this field is in its very beginning. Further progress can be expected from systematic basic research on the mechanisms underlying immunomodulation. This also applies to verification of clinical efficacy, which is a prerequisite for the acceptance of medications with purported immunostimulatory properties.
Editors and Affiliations
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Institut für pharmazeutische Biologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany
H. Wagner
