Book Description

This Research Topic is part of a series with: Herbal Medicines for Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Diseases - Novel Pharmacological and Toxicological approaches, Volume II Ethnopharmacology deals with the exchange of knowledge about people's use of herbal medicines and their pharmacological effects. The information related to therapeutic agents of plant origin and their toxic effects was preserved by oral tradition as well as recorded in materia medica. Many drugs that are now available on the market have been developed from this valuable information. Today, scientists that specialize in medicinal chemistry use these existing herbal drugs to develop and produce more therapeutically active agents with less toxic side effects. The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a multi-organ system, consisting of bacteria, and digestive enzymes that have the capacity of degrading food and other molecules. Diseases associated with this organ system include peptic ulcer, inflammatory bowel disease, gastric cancer to name a few. The liver receives seventy percent of its blood supply from the GIT via the hepatic portal vein. The disruption in the gut–liver axis is associated with liver diseases including alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and autoimmune liver disease (AILD). NAFLD can cause non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which can develop into liver cirrhosis through inflammation and fibrosis. Liver cirrhosis is categorized as an end-stage of chronic liver disease, which impairs innate immunity-related genes. Growing evidence from preclinical studies proposes that the gut–liver axis leads to targeted therapeutic modalities for various liver injuries. Therefore, therapeutic treatment of these conditions is essential to prevent progression to these more harmful late-stage diseases.