Despite the great progress in modern medicine, traditional medicine has always been practised in the Arab-Islamic world. Cultural beliefs and practices often lead to self-care or home remedies in rural areas and consultation with traditional healers. Traditional therapies have been utilized by people in the Mediterranean region who have faith in spiritual healers, homeopaths or even many herbalists. These are the first choice for problems such as infertility, impotence, diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, psychosomatic troubles and many other diseases. The modern use of Arab botanical medicines has historical roots in ancient Arabic medicine. In the Middle Ages Arab herbalists, pharmacologists, chemists and physicians adapted the ancient medicinal practices of Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Persia and India. Medical innovations introduced by Arab physicians included: the discovery of the immune system, the introduction of microbiological science, and the separation of medicine from pharmacological science. This chapter presents a systematic review on traditional Arab botanical medicine including historical background, medical innovations introduced by Arab and Muslim physicians, and a state of the art description of traditional Arab herbal medicine.

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Plants have been used in the cure of diseases from the origins of humanity. It is commonly thought that traditionally used medicinal plants have already been tested and ratified because they have been considered effective medicines for so long and continue to be used as such with no or few side effects, and therefore are not in need of scientific evaluation. However, World Health Organization (WHO) specialists recommend that the traditional methods should be better investigated. To test medicinal plants, it is necessary to consider the quality of the material to be tested, the plant component used, the extraction method, dose and experimental species used. This chapter aims to present plants that are popularly used for the control of hyperglycaemia and that have already had hypoglycaemic effects proven in humans. In addition, this chapter presents the mechanisms of action of these plants to decrease blood glucose.

Native people of America have a vast heritage in the knowledge and use of medicinal plants (MPs) that continue to surprise the scientific community. MPs are defined as vegetables that are useful in therapeutics because they possess active compounds. The geographic situation of South America allows the development of one of the most variable and rich medicinal floras. Botanical names, popular use and parts utilized of MPs are well documented in folk medicinal practice in South America. In this work several scientific studies are described that use different fractions obtained from vegetables. Useful antimicrobial phytochemicals can be divided into several categories: phenols and phenolic acids, quinones, flavones and flavonoids, tannins, coumarins, essential oils (EOs), alkaloids, lectins and polypeptides. These studies confirm that many EOs and plant extracts possess antibacterial activity (ABA), antifungal activity (AFA) and antiviral activity (AVA) in vitro. The scientific investigations of antimicrobial activity (AA) of plant products showed a good correlation with the reported traditional medicinal use. The preservation of species in the native flora appears to be crucial for the maintenance of biodiversity. There is a need to preserve the vegetable populations in their natural habitats.