This research topic will provide an action mechanism and clinical application of herbal medicines in view of the recent development in herbal medicine research. The particular focus is on the clinical usage on the various diseases and conditions based on the scientific data.

Although herbal medicines have not been fully accepted by mainstream medicine because of the complex nature of the formulae, the stringent quality control of Japanese herbal medicine and reproducibility of preclinical findings, together with few adverse events, have made herbal medicines more attractive for the management not only on intractable diseases, such as cancer and dementia, but also on common health problems from odontopathy to constipation. The multi-component herbal medicines capable of targeting multiple sites could be useful for future drug discovery. Mechanistic studies and identification of active compounds could lead to new discoveries in biological and biomedical sciences, thereby facilitating clinical application of herbal medicine in various countries.

Each review benefits from the inclusion of studies published in non-English journals such as from India or China, as well as from Japan. It is easy to write a review using the normal search engines, therefore, articles which are not indexed internationally should also be included. All species need to be validated taxonomically (e.g. www.theplantlist.org) and the full name, including authorities and family, needs to be included. If there are taxonomic problems in the original paper this should be highlighted. And, importantly, detailed information in pharmacological studies should be included, such as the type of extract, dose range and duration, minimal toxic concentration, the model used, what controls (positive or negative) were used, as well as other basic pharmacological data.

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