**Preface**

Mankind has used medicinal plants for thousands of years due to their healing properties. In the days when there were no synthetic drugs, plants represented the only alternative to treating health problems. Many plant compounds have anti-inflammatory properties, and they are an essential source of pharmaceutical drugs. Some modern pharmaceuticals are either directly extracted from plants or synthesized based on compounds found in plants. The most well-known compounds are aspirin, morphine, quinine, ephedrine, and atropine.

Since the technological advances achieved during the last decades in all fields, chemical extraction has become more accurate, and the characterization of plant compounds has become more rigorous. Moreover, numerous in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of plant compounds on human health.

Due to their great diversity and huge number of compounds, plants remain an important source of compounds and inspiration for the pharmaceutical industry and modern medicine.

> **Diana Roxana Pelinescu** *Editor*
