
Phytochemistry, the Military and Health
Phytotoxins and Natural Defenses
- 1st Edition - March 2, 2021
- Imprint: Elsevier
- Editors: Andrew G. Mtewa, Chukwuebuka Egbuna
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 2 1 5 5 6 - 2
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 2 3 2 3 0 - 9
Phytochemistry, the Military and Health: Phytotoxins and Natural Defenses comes as a response to the gap that there has for so long existed between phytochemistry and survival… Read more

Purchase options

Institutional subscription on ScienceDirect
Request a sales quotePhytochemistry, the Military and Health: Phytotoxins and Natural Defenses comes as a response to the gap that there has for so long existed between phytochemistry and survival of both service personnel and civilian communities during and after conflicts. Armed conflicts cause a lot of devastation to communities and should be avoided as much as it can be possible. The devastation is usually evident in service provisions such as Health, Education, Water, and Food among many others. Both service personnel and civilians are affected to various degrees. Facilities usually end up being physically destroyed, with no essential supplies and/or having dysfunctional systems. Going with untreated wounds, communicable and non-communicable diseases for weeks with no medical interventions due to the conflicts, disease burdens heavily weigh down on communities as well as security personnel. To make the situation even more complicated, masses of people are forced to migrate for safety and security reasons, likely going with diseases along wherever they go. In such instances, phytochemicals become handy in providing solutions from first aid, basic analgesia, antimicrobials, and the general improvement of health.
Phytochemicals are known to play a major role in the day to day management of diseases and health. There has been much research into their effectiveness as community medicines and as alternatives to conventional drugs. However, the role that phytochemicals play in the military, counterterrorism, and security has been overlooked. Phytochemistry, the Military and Health: Phytotoxins and Natural Defenses discusses the roles that phytochemicals play as friends and foes in the military, including insights aimed to help develop antidotes against phytochemicals and other chemical agents used maliciously as weapons. Filling a gap between drug discovery, security, and emergency medicine, this book describes which plants can be categorized for protection and controls, which can be helpful in times of conflicts and soon after conflicts, in military operations, and those that can be used as deterrents and as emergency medicines. Carefully designed to show the contribution that phytochemicals play in safety and security, this book is useful for researchers, regulators and anyone interested in plant chemistry.
- Covers the contribution that phytochemicals play in safety and security
- Contains insights that will help in the development of antidotes against phytochemical and other chemical weapons
- Categorizes plants in terms of their usefulness as well as the potential security risks they possess
Security experts, chemical control and regulatory agencies, government agencies, medical professionals, pharmacists and pharmacologists, toxicologists and pharmaceutical industries
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Contributors
- Part One: Role of plants in human conflict
- 1: Introduction to phytochemicals and the military
- Abstract
- 1.1: Introduction
- 1.2: Plants and phytochemicals
- 1.3: Phytochemicals during conflicts in some cited wars
- 1.4: Postconflict needs for phytochemicals
- 1.5: Conclusion
- 2: Phytochemicals, plant toxins, and their influence in military strategies
- Abstract
- 2.1: Introduction
- 2.2: Plants’ contribution to emergency medicine, potential misuse as poisons, and physical training grounds to the army/militaries
- 2.3: Phytochemical-based strategic decisions in politics and the military
- 2.4: Useful and harmful plants used during conflicts
- 2.5: Plant toxins and chemical warfare agents used in conflicts
- 2.6: Recommendations to policy regulation and use of plants during conflicts
- 2.7: Conclusion
- 3: The world’s most toxic plants service personnel should be wary about
- Abstract
- 3.1: Introduction
- 3.2: Exposure to phytotoxins
- 3.3: Toxic effects of Phytotoxins
- 3.4: List of some common poisonous plants to watch out for
- 3.5: Personal protective equipment during operations
- 3.6: Conclusion and recommendations
- 4: Overview of the traditional systems of medicine in different continents during postwar recovery
- Abstract
- 4.1: Introduction
- 4.2: Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants utilized globally
- 4.3: Traditional medicine in Africa
- 4.4: Herbalism
- 4.5: Spiritualism
- 4.6: Divination
- 4.7: Traditional medicine in South and East Asia
- 4.8: Traditional medicine in India
- 4.9: Traditional medicine in other continents such as South America and Northern Europe
- 4.10: Traditional medicine in different continents such as Asia, Africa, and America
- 4.11: Theories in traditional medicine
- 4.12: Application of traditional medicine from different continents for the treatment of waterborne diseases during and after war activities
- 4.13: Numerous types of factors that might be responsible for waterborne diseases during and after war activities
- 4.14: Modes of action of some specific metabolites containing phytochemicals that possess antimalarial activity during and after war activities
- 4.15: Conclusions
- 5: Ethnopharmacological properties of Asian medicinal plants during conflict-related blockades
- Abstract
- 5.1: Introduction
- 5.2: Demography
- 5.3: Traditional and complementary medicine
- 5.4: Asian medicinal plants for the treatment of diseases
- 5.5: Cosmetic ethnopharmacology
- 5.6: Conclusion
- 6: Applications of phytochemicals against nerve agents in counterterrorism
- Abstract
- 6.1: Introduction
- 6.2: An overview of nerve agent mode of action and pathophysiological consequences
- 6.3: Chemical approach to antinerve agent poisoning
- 6.4: The application of weak reversible AChE inhibitors
- 6.5: The use of stigmines as antidotes against nerve agents
- 6.6: Cholinesterase reactivators: Oximes and hydroxylamine
- 6.7: Acetylcholine receptor modulators and auxiliary neuromodulators
- 6.8: The potential of atropine and benzodiazepines
- 6.9: Chemical allosteric modulation of AChE
- 6.10: Direct chemical decontamination, neutralization and elimination
- 6.11: Application of nonbiological catalysts in the decontamination of nerve agents
- 6.12: The potential of metal-organic frameworks in chemical warfare degradation
- 6.13: Biological approach to antinerve agent poisoning
- 6.14: The potential of human paraoxonase 1
- 6.15: Recombinant and heterologously expressed antibodies against nerve agents
- 6.16: Future prospects
- 6.17: Conclusion
- Part Two: Plants and phytochemicals for well-being and in emergency military intervention
- 7: Psychoactive plants and phytochemicals
- Abstract
- 7.1: Introduction
- 7.2: Psychoactive plants
- 7.3: Neuroprotective plants
- 7.4: Antianxiety and antidepressant natural products and their derivatives
- 7.5: Psychoactive phytochemicals
- 8: Plant-based analgesics during conflicts
- Abstract
- 8.1: Introduction to the pathophysiology of pain and analgesics
- 8.2: Pain and its types
- 8.3: Natural sources of analgesics
- 8.4: Conclusion
- 9: Important antihistaminic plants and their potential role in health
- Abstract
- 9.1: Introduction
- 9.2: Phytoconstituents with reported antihistaminic activities
- 9.3: Antihistaminic plants
- 9.4: Clinical trials
- 9.5: Conclusion
- 10: Plants and phytochemicals against accidental plant skin poisoning
- Abstract
- 10.1: Introduction
- 10.2: Skin poisoning and plant poisons
- 10.3: Injury caused by plants in accidental plant skin poisoning
- 10.4: Plants and phytochemicals against accidental plant skin poisoning
- 10.5: Conclusion
- 11: Plants for management of diarrhea
- Abstract
- 11.1: Introduction
- 11.2: Etiology of diarrhea
- 11.3: Chemotherapeutic management of diarrhea
- 11.4: Medicinal plants in diarrhea therapy
- 11.5: Conclusion
- 12: Phytochemical solutions in the face of chemical subjection
- Abstract
- 12.1: Introduction
- 12.2: Management and treatment guidelines for chemical subjection
- 12.3: Skin and environmental decontamination activity potential of plants
- 12.4: Wound healing plants
- 12.5: Chelating plants
- 12.6: Plants with antidote properties
- 12.7: Anticancer plants
- 12.8: Cholinergic plants
- 12.9: Antiemetic and ocular plants
- 12.10: Pulmonary disease management plants
- 12.11: Conclusion
- 13: Pharmafoods for body cleansing of toxic exposure to chemical and biological warfare agents
- Abstract
- 13.1: Introduction
- 13.2: Selected plants for the development of pharmafoods
- 13.3: Modes of action of pharmafoods which could be utilized for cleansing of toxic substances
- 13.4: Conclusion and recommendations
- 14: Prevention of liver problems from adverse chemical agents by healthy nutrition and Unani dietotherapy
- Abstract
- 14.1: Introduction
- 14.2: The liver as an organ to metabolize drugs and chemicals
- 14.3: Common chemicals and drugs which damage liver cells
- 14.4: Pathophysiology of toxic liver disease
- 14.5: Symptoms of toxic liver disease
- 14.6: General measures for prevention of toxic liver disease
- 14.7: Concept of usage of healthy nutrition in toxic liver disease
- 14.8: Nutritional elements helpful in preventing and treating liver problems
- 14.9: Use of dietotherapy (ilaj bil ghiza) of Unani medicine in the prevention and treatment of toxic liver diseases
- 14.10: Conclusion
- 15: Food allergens and how to ameliorate their effects by phytochemicals
- Abstract
- 15.1: Introduction
- 15.2: Types of allergies
- 15.3: Food allergy
- 15.4: Phytochemicals an alternative remedy to food allergens
- 15.5: Food allergy in the army
- 15.6: Future perspective
- 15.7: Conclusions
- 16: Plants against malarial and typhoid fever
- Abstract
- 16.1: Introduction
- 16.2: Plants from different folk medicines with proved in vitro antimalarial activity
- 16.3: Marine plants with antimalarial activity
- 16.4: Different phytoconstituents having antimalarial activities
- 16.5: Plants proved in vivo antimalarial activity
- 16.6: Plants with proven in vivo anti-typhoid activity
- 16.7: Conclusion
- 17: Plants effective against insomnia and sleep apnea
- Abstract
- 17.1: Introduction
- 17.2: Conventional therapeutic approaches
- 17.3: Plants effective against insomnia and apnea
- 17.4: Conclusive remarks
- 18: Roles of medicinal plants in the treatment of connective tissue diseases
- Abstract
- 18.1: Introduction
- 18.2: Connective tissue disease
- 18.3: Connective tissue restoration
- 18.4: Medicinal plants in the treatment of connective tissue diseases
- 18.5: Conclusion
- 19: Life-threatening diseases and conditions in the battlefield: Pyrotherapeutic perspectives
- Abstract
- 19.1: Introduction
- 19.2: The history of war time diseases and plant-based therapies
- 19.3: Life-threatening diseases that occurred on the battlefield
- 19.4: The fury of infectious disease during war times
- 19.5: Mitigation of threatening diseases in the battlefield
- 19.6: Conclusion
- 20: Plant-based nutrition supplementation on the well-being of servicemen
- Abstract
- 20.1: Introduction
- 20.2: Important definitions
- 20.3: Strategies to improve health through proper nutrition and physical activity
- 20.4: The WHO global strategy on nutrition, physical activity, and health
- 20.5: Nutrition standards
- 20.6: Rules of nutrition in the army
- 20.7: Proposals for nutritional standards for land forces
- 20.8: Proposals for nutrition standards for special forces
- 20.9: Discussion
- 20.10: Conclusions
- Part Three: Management, protocols, regulation, and future perspectives of phytochemicals
- 21: Obesity: Causes, consequences, and disease risks for service personnel
- Abstract
- 21.1: Epidemiology
- 21.2: Biochemical aspects of obesity
- 21.3: Psychological aspects of obesity
- 21.4: Hormonal response to stress
- 21.5: Behavioral, stress and obesity
- 21.6: Stress and obesity in military personals
- 21.7: Environmental aspects of obesity
- 21.8: Consumption of fast food
- 21.9: Food environment
- 21.10: Obesity: Clinical aspects
- 21.11: Disease risks associated with obesity
- 21.12: The major risks to health as a result of obesity are briefly discussed below
- 21.13: Conclusion
- Conflict of interest
- Contribution
- 22: Water testing for potential phytochemical contamination and poisoning
- Abstract
- 22.1: Introduction
- 22.2: The defensive phytochemicals and different plant uses
- 22.3: Water phytocontamination, poisoning, and phytochemical linkages to water-borne infections
- 22.4: Analytical methods for phytochemical analysis
- 22.5: Conclusion
- 23: Identification and analysis of toxic phytochemicals
- Abstract
- 23.1: Introduction
- 23.2: Toxic plants
- 23.3: Toxic phytochemicals
- 23.4: Analysis of toxic phytochemical
- 23.5: Conclusion
- 24: Molecular optimization of phytochemicals into antidotes
- Abstract
- 24.1: Introduction
- 24.2: Overview of the drug development process
- 24.3: The development of potential therapeutics against a disease
- 24.4: Antidote development against other poisons (antivenom)
- 24.5: Further analyses
- 24.6: An opportunity in data sharing
- 24.7: Conclusion
- 25: Application of nanoceutical technology for fast and efficient control of illness
- Abstract
- 25.1: Introduction
- 25.2: Specific examples of nanoceutical that is been used for the management of critical illness
- 25.3: Conclusion and recommendations
- 26: Water resources security and management for sustainable communities
- Abstract
- Acknowledgments
- 26.1: Introduction
- 26.2: Water contamination
- 26.3: Management technologies
- 26.4: Wetlands role in water purifications
- 26.5: Conclusions and recommendations
- 27: Impacts of inorganic/organic pollutants on agroecosystems and eco-friendly solutions
- Abstract
- Acknowledgments
- 27.1: Introduction
- 27.2: Indicators of soil degradation
- 27.3: Bioavailability of pollutants in soils
- 27.4: Soil contamination with crude oil
- 27.5: Green remediation techniques
- 27.6: Case studies of soil contamination and remediation
- 27.7: Promises and limitations of soil remediation
- 27.8: Conclusions and recommendations
- 28: Plant-based first aid kits for emergency response
- Abstract
- 28.1: Introduction
- 28.2: History of medicinal plant use in military interventions
- 28.3: Effect of phytochemicals on the cognitive function well-being of military personnel
- 28.4: Plants as food and medicine remedies for military interventions
- 28.5: First aid innovations from plants
- 28.6: Conclusion
- Index
- Edition: 1
- Published: March 2, 2021
- Imprint: Elsevier
- No. of pages: 606
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9780128215562
- eBook ISBN: 9780128232309
AM
Andrew G. Mtewa
CE
Chukwuebuka Egbuna
Chukwuebuka Egbuna (PhD) is a chartered chemist and academic researcher. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON), the Nigerian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NSBMB), and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) (United Kingdom). Dr. Egbuna is the founder and editor of the Elsevier book series on Drug Discovery Update. The series includes books, monographs, and edited collections from all areas of drug discovery including emerging therapeutic claims for the treatment of diseases. He has published research articles in many international journals of repute and is ranked among the top 500 Nigerian scientists in SciVal/SCOPUS. He has edited more than 25 books with Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis. His most recent book is the three volume Coronavirus Drug Discovery, published by Elsevier. Dr. Egbuna is the founder and the publishing director of IPS Intelligentsia Publishing Services.