Essentials of Botanical Extraction: Principles and Applications provides a unique, single source of valuable information on the various botanical extraction methods available, from conventional to the use of green and modern extraction technologies including ultrasounds, microwaves, pressurized liquids, and supercritical fluids. Most extracts obtained from botanicals are often poorly characterized with unidentified active or inactive constituents. A wise selection of an extraction strategy is vital to drug discovery from medicinal plants as extraction forms the basic first step in medicinal plant research. This book also explores the mathematical hypotheses and innovations in botanical extractions and analyzes different post extraction operations so that dependency on serendipity is reduced and the same be converted into programmed drug discovery.

1. Introduction 2. History and Background on the Use of Natural Products Obtained From Plants as Therapeutic Agents    2.1. A General Overview    2.2. Drug Usage During Prehistoric Period    2.3. Developments and Drug Usage During Ancient Times/Pre-Hellenic Civilizations    2.4. Drug Discovery and Development During the Middle Ages    2.5. Developments and Drug Usage During Last Phases of Middle Ages 3. Botanicals as a Screening Source of New Drugs: Past Success Stories and Present Day Concerns    3.1. Historic Role of Botanicals    3.2. Botanicals as Sources of New Leads Over the Past Three Decades 4. What All Should Know About Plant Drugs    4.1. Role of Plants in Drug Development    4.2. Factors Thought to be the Reason for Declining Interest in Botanicals    4.3. Approaches and Strategies to Improve the Status of Drug Discovery from Botanicals    4.4. Approaches to Medicinal Plant Selection Prior to Extraction    4.5. An Overview on Pre-Extraction Techniques 5. Extraction of Botanicals    5.1. Understanding the Link Between Botanical Extraction and their Standardization    5.2. General Extraction Approaches and Theories    5.3. Factors Affecting Extraction of Botanicals 6. Classification Of Extraction Methods    6.1. Classification of Various Non-Conventional Extraction Techniques    6.2. Removal of Unwanted and Interfering Components After Extraction 7. Innovative Extraction Process Design and Optimization    7.1. Terminologies We Need to Know    7.2. Issues Related to Design of Experiments    7.3. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) as a Tool for Optimization in Microwave Assisted Extraction (MAE)    7.4. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) as a Tool for Optimization in Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE)    7.5. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) as a Tool for Optimization in Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) 8. Identification Strategies Of Phytocompounds    8.1. Identification Strategy for Volatile Compounds    8.2. Identification Strategy for Non-Volatile Compounds    8.3. Identification of Known Compounds Using Reference Standards    8.4. Identification of Known Compounds Without Reference Standards    8.5. Identification of Compounds with Unknown Structure    8.6. Stages in Structure Elucidation 9. Qualitative Phytochemical Screening    9.1. Alkaloids    9.2. Glycosides    9.3. Terpenoids    9.4. Steroids    9.5. Flavonoids    9.6. Coumarin Drugs    9.7. Essential Oil    9.8. Carbohydrate    9.9. Tannins and Phenolic Compounds    9.10. Proteins and Amino Acids    9.11. Spray Reagents 10. Profiling Crude Extracts for Rapid Identification of Bioactive Compounds    10.1. Techniques Routinely Employed in Dereplication Study    10.2. Stages Where Dereplication is Applied During Drug Discovery from Botanicals    10.3. Construction and Characterization of Crude Extract Libraries