Although lots of books have been published about herbal therapy, a comprehensive overview of the adverse effects of botanical medicines is not available. Yet such an overview is badly needed, because of the enormous rise in the use of herbal remedies. The book series will provide approximately 150 monographs on herbal remedies and plant-derived drugs. Each monograph will provide introductory information on Botany, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Uses, followed by an Adverse Reaction Profile subdivided according to organ and function. The World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen) has decided to support the book in the form of an acknowledgement that it has been preparedin cooperation with this Office.

Over the last 35 years, synthetic detergents have become increasingly important as skin cleansing agents. With the vast range of soaps and synthetic cleansers available nowadays, doctors and pharmacists are expectedto advise on how to cleanse normal as well as diseased skins. Sound advice must include knowledge of the nature, composition, and action of the available surfactants and cleanser preparations, the physiology and pathophysiology of the skin surface, the microbial ecology ofthe skin, and the factors that control the skin flora. Much of this knowledge is the result of recent research. Health care professionals must be familiar, not only with the benefits, but also with the possible adverse effects of synthetic detergents on the human skin (roughness, water loss, etc.) and on the environment. This monograph draws upon the expertise of numerous scientists to present a comprehensive view of the subject.

This compendium of essential drug data helps when planning clinical research projects and choosing drugs with specific properties. As well as covering established drugs, data is presented on compounds about to be marketed or in the last stages of clinical development.

This book is the first volume of a series on the adverse effects of herbal drugs. We begin this series not because we are opposed to phytotherapy, or because we want to share our ammunition with adversaries of herbal drug treatments. We realize that several remedies of natural origin (e. g., senna, ipecac) have retained a prominent place in the conventional drug armamentarium. We also recognize that the general public appreciates so-called mildly acting herbs for self-medication purposes. We acknowledge that even when such herbs have no pronounced pharmacological acti vity, their psychosocial effect remains an asset that should not be ignored. Moreover, we do not hold the often heard opinion that traditional remedies are nothing but a collection of worthless relics from the remote past which cannot possibly be relevant for modem medicine. We consider this an erroneous assumption thas has been refuted repeatedly by experimental research on traditional botanicals. The encouraging results with the herbal remedy feverfew as a prophylactic antimigraine agent is a recent illustration that botanical medicine can still provide exciting the rapeutic discoveries. For these reasons it is not our intention to place botanical remedies indiscriminately in an unfavorable light. We do not seek to dam up the "green" wave that is sweeping over our society. We do consider it important, however, that this wave be appropria tely chanelled, and with this basic attitude we have assumed edi torial responsibility."

Prescribing for children is problematic. Children are not small adults in terms of their physiology, and they cannot be subjects in clinical trials. This makes prescribing for them something of an art and a daunting one at that for trainees. Will Carroll (co-editor of the Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics amongst other titles for paediatrics trainees) with a team of fellow paediatricians and a hospital pharmacist have sought to demystify prescribing for children. The team has identified what from their experience are the most common drugs prescribed to children and have addressed each one, adding detail about how each medicine works. Each chapter follows the ABCDE structure covering Absorption, Biological effects, Clearance, Dosing and side Effects in children. This book is a succinct, portable reference, modelled closely on Hitchings et al.: The Top 100 Drugs. Written in conjunction with a hospital pharmacist for drug expertise. User-friendly double-page-spread approach. Each drug entry preceded by clinical pharmacology information with consistent headings: Why and when; Absorption; Biology. Each drug presented in consistent categories: Clearance; Dosing; Administration; Side effects and interactions; Monitoring and Cost.

Die klassische Magistralrezeptur hat eine lange Tradition und stutzt sich vorwiegend auf Empirie. In der Praxis sind nahezu 50% der durch Dermatologen verordneten Externa Magistralrezepturen. Es ist unumganglich, dass die Magistralrezeptur dem gegenwartigen Stand des wissenschaftlichen Fortschrittes angepasst wird. Obsolete Wirkstoffe mussen vermieden werden. Die Galenik soll optimalisiert werden. Ahnlich wie bei Spezialitaten soll sich der verordnende Arzt darauf verlassen konnen, dass bei empfohlenen Magistralrezepturen die pharmakologische Wirkung des Wirkstoffes in der Grundlage gesichert oder zumindest sehr wahrscheinlich ist. Externagrundlagen fur bestimmte Indikationen sollen gezielt unter wissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten zusammengestellt werden. Hauptanliegen des Buches sind gezielte therapeutische Empfehlungen unter diesen Gesichtspunkten."

This supplement contains the papers submitted at EUROTOX 88, the joint Congress of the European Society of Toxicology and the Federation of the European Societies of Toxicology. The theme was one of monitoring and examining the effects of toxic substances in the biological response at the subcellular level. Mechanisms of metal carcinogenicity are discussed as well as the biomonitoring of chemical exposure. Reports are provided on the role of individual differences in man and the effect of risk assessment. Papers appear dealing with the genetic control of drug metabolizing enzymes. The role of metabolism in organic specific toxicity is discussed. Information is included on the toxicological impact of chemicals interfering with the endocrine system as well as on the effects of toxicants on the immune system. Presentations deal with the current status of risk assessment in environmental toxicology.

In this compendium the clinical and pharmacological properties of Ginkgo biloba, a standardized drug and the subject of increasing worldwide interest, are closely portrayed. Results of studies are presented here which illustrate the influence of Ginkgo on haemodynamic and rheologic parameters, metabolism and neurotransmitters. In addition to papers reporting on experimental research, data are also presented which provide firm interdisciplinary evidence for its successful therapeutic application, above all in the following indication areas: cerebral insufficiency with accompanying symptoms of dizziness, tinnitus, headache and memory loss, lability of mood and anxious states, and peripheral arterial disease.

The principles of drug therapies are fundamental to medical practitioners in all branches; but are often difficult to get to grips with. Prescribing at a Glance addresses the most common uses of prescription drugs, and follows progress from dose calculation, administration to monitoring the effects in the treatments of major presenting problems. With a focus on prescribing, this user-friendly guide helps practitioners to develop crucial knowledge and skills, including establishing accurate drug histories, planning appropriate therapies, writing safe and legal prescriptions, critically appraising the prescribing of others, patient support, accessing reliable information about medicines, and detecting adverse drug reactions. Prescribing at a Glance:: * Features detailed and high-quality colour illustrations throughout * Includes examples of common prescribing errors, practice prescriptions and calculations * Follows the structure of the WHO Good Prescribing Guide, and corresponds to the core curriculum of the British Pharmacological Society * Is the perfect guide to help you prepare for the Prescribing Skills Assessment (PSA) * Includes a companion website featuring interactive MCQs and cases, available at www.ataglanceseries.com/prescribing From the series that brought you Medical Pharmacology at a Glance, and designed to help those in the later stages of their medical training become adept at the skills required for a vital yet often confusing subject Prescribing at a Glance will help you fill in any knowledge gaps with simple step-by-step instructions, and clear, easy-to-remember guidelines.

The papers in this volume are the invited lectures at the Second Workshop on Amine Oxidases held at the Biomedical Center, Uppsala University, 2 to 4 August 1986. It was a great pleasure for the organizers to see, in Uppsala, so many old and new friends, all brought together by our common interest in the fascinating field of Amine Oxidases. The Workshop was the successor of a long row of successful predecessors to start with the 1972 meeting in Cagliari, Sardinia, and recently preceded by the first meeting of Workshop design, held in Cambridge 1984. Several of the previous meetings have been dedicated to distinguished senior research workers within the field. To start this Workshop a memorial lecture was given. This lecture, given by Prof. T. P. Singer, was dedicated to the late Prof. K. Kamijo, who was one of the pioneers of what is now worldwide interest in Amine Oxidases and who organized the superb meeting in Hakone 1981. To the great honour of all the participants the family of the late Prof. Kamijo visited the Workshop. Abstracts of all the presentations have been published as a Supplement of Acta Pharmacologica et Toxicologica (Copenhagen).

"The chemical laboratory is actually not a dangerous place to work in, but it demands a reasonable prudence on the part of the experimenters and instructers, to keep it a safe place. Emphasis must be positive, indicating the proper, correct and safe procedure to be followed in all laboratory operations or when confron ted with an emergency situation. Too heavy stress upon the horrors associated with laboratory accidents or graphic descriptions of gory injuries or nasty fires should be avoided. Frightened, timid students are more likely to have accidents than the confident laboratory man who works with due regard to safety. " This statement, written by 1. R. Young (1) in 1971, in The Journal of Chemical Education, applies not only to students working in the chemical laboratory but can be extended to all scientists and technicians working with hazardous products, and in particular with chemical carcinogens. The hazards of handling toxic or dangerous chem icals have been well documented. Besides safety notices and articles in the scientific literature, a large number of books have been dedicated to this subject, among which can be cited Safety and Accident Prevention in Chemical Operations (2), Handbook of Laboratory Safety (3), Hazards in the Chemical Laboratory (4), 1 Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (5), Safety in Working with Chemicals (6) and Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories (7).

The microelectrode technique is today the most widely used method in electrophy- siology. Microelectrodes offer a unique approach to measurements of electrical pa- rameters and ion activities of single cells. Several important breakthroughs in trans- port physiology have arisen from microelectrode studies. Undoubtedly, there is a progressively wide-spread use of conventional and ion-selective microelectrodes. Due to their particular dimension and properties micro electrodes are exclusive- ly applied to measurements on living matter. This must have many consequences to my thoughts on experiments with microelectrodes. In this book, my concern is fo- cussing on the description of an intracellular method that should lead to reliable in- formation on cellular parameters. The methodical basis for any meaningful applica- tion is treated extensively. However, technical perfection and accurate results are not the only concern when working on animals and human beings. Rather, my thoughts are governed by the intellectual and moral mastery of the experimental ap- proach on living subjects. A measurement with microelectrodes usually necessitates the sacrifice of an ani- mal. This is an immense fact, and means that the knowledge gained by the experi- ment must justify the death of a living subject.

Trichloroethylene (TRI), administered orally at high doses for 18 months has been shown to increase the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in B6C3F 1 mice but not Osborne-Mendel rats (NCI, 1976). The interpretation of these studies has been confounded due to the presence of epoxide stabilizers in the TRI. However more recent studies have demonstrated that pure TRI also causes hepatocellular carcinoma in B6C3F mice (NTP, 1983) and Aldedey Park (Swiss) mice (Elcombe 1 and Pratt, unpublished data). Furthermore, no increase in the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma was observed in Fisher 344 rats administered pure TRI (NTP, 1983). TRI has been extensively examined for mutagenic potential, but many studies were bedeviled by the presence of mutagenic epoxide stabilizers. However, in general, TRI has been found to be only 'marginally' mutagenic or non-mutagenic (Greim et ai., 1975; Simmon et ai., 1977; Bronzetti et ai., 1978; Waskell, 1978; Bartsch et ai., 1979; Slacik-Erben et ai., 1980). Covalent binding of trichloroethylene or its metabolites to protein, RNA and DNA has been illustrated in vitro (Van Duuren and Banerjee, 1976; Bolt et ai., 1977; Bolt and Filser, 1977; Uehleke and Poplawski-Tabarelli, 1977; Banerjee and Van Dauren, 1978). However, in vivo, only extremely low (indistinguishable from protein binding) or zero binding of TRI metabolites to DNA has been reported (Parchman and Magee, 1982; Stott et ai., 1982).

Die pharmazeutische Industrie weist gegenuber anderen Branchen einige Besonderheiten auf, die in der allgemeinen Industriebetriebslehre nicht ausreichend berucksichtigt werden. Das vorliegende Buch befasst sich daher mit den speziellen volkswirtschaftlichen und betriebswirtschaftlichen Aspekten der pharmazeutischen Industrie. Neueinsteigern in diese Branche bietet es einen umfassenden Uberblick, gestandene Praktiker konnen sich uber Spezialaspekte und neuere Ansatze informieren. Beitrage von Autoren aus Wissenschaft, Unternehmen und Beratungspraxis."

The nitrates have remarkable clinical effects that have stood the test of time in the management of ischemic heart disease. What is unusual about this class of com pounds is that, after many years of clinical use, we are still exploring new avenues as to the vascular mechanisms of their effect, their applications in treating other clini cal conditions, and the development of products with more favorable pharmacoki netic properties. This volume represents the proceedings of a symposium held June 14-16, 1984, in Montreux. The papers were selected to explore the current state of knowledge re garding the mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, and clinical efficacy of ni trates. Particular attention has been given to newer studies utilizing the 5-mononi trate metabolite of isosorbide dinitrate, a drug whose pharmacokinetic properties may make it an important new agent in the treatment of angina and congestive heart failure. One of the benefits of an international meeting of experts sharing their views on an internationally used group of drugs is that differences in concepts and clinical practice become apparent and can be discussed. The Montreux forum made it clear that clinicians in North and South America and Europe have diverging views on how the nitrates should be used."

FASTtrack Physical Pharmacy focuses on what you really need to know in order to pass your exams. Concise, bulleted information and all-important self-assessment questions including MCQs. This FASTtrack book is derived from the textbook Physiochemical Principles of Pharmacy and is designed to be used alongside it for those revision periods when time is short. It includes learning objectives, self-assessment questions and memory maps to aid with revision. The fully updated third edition includes new chapters, thus bringing it in line with the sixth edition of Physicochemical Principles of Pharmacy Are your exams coming up? Are you drowning in textbooks and lecture notes and wondering where to begin? Take the FASTtrack route to successful study for your examinations. FASTtrack provides the ultimate lecture notes and is a must-have for all pharmacy students wanting to study and test themselves for forthcoming exams..

The International Life Sciences Institute (lLSI) is a scientific foundation wh ich addresses critical health and safety issues of national and international concern. ILSI promotes international cooperation by pro viding the mechanism for scientists from government, industry and universities to work together on cooperative programs to generate and disseminate scientific data. The members and trustees of the Institute believe that questions regarding health and safety are best resolved when scientists can ex amine and discuss issues, as an independent body, se arate from the political pressures of individual countries and the economic concerns of individual companies. Frequently, meaningful assessment of the risk of a test substance is hindered by the inherent inconsistencies in the system. The development and refinement of methods and systems to evaluate the safety of chemicals have evolved in a rapid and largely unplanned fashion. Attempts to improve the system have largely been directed toward broad general concerns, with little attention being given to specific problems or issues. A failure to resolve these problems has frequently resulted in increased testing costs and complications in the assessment and extrapolation of the results. Publicity surrounding toxicologic issues has created chronic public apprehension about the ability of science and government to deal effectively with these problems. In response to these difficulties, ILSI has assembled highly qualified and renowned scientists from research institutes, universities, government and industry, with relevant scientific knowledge and expertise regarding the issues that complicate risk assessment procedures."

After a compound and its various effects - or, as the case may be, any particular one of these - have been discovered there is still a long way ahead until it is available for use in daily practice as a finished product. Before reaching the doctor, the substance is examined by chemists, pharmacologists and pharmacists - just to mention a few of the most important stages in a whole research sequence. Before the drug is finally made available on the market, the findings resulting from animal experiments must be confirmed in clinical studies. The expectations involved in its development must be met, and sufficient evidence has to be established as to the drug's effects and side effects, indications and contraindications, and the questions of safe use and appropriate dosage. Only then may the drug be registered and introduced to the market. In this respect Metipranolol eye drops, which have recently been launched on the market, formed no exception and had likewise to go through all these various stages. A series of investigators at many different centers participated in this procedure, and at the invitation of the manufacturers, Messrs. Dr. Gerhard Mann, they assembled for discussions at a symposium held in Berlin in January 1983, and reported on the substance and their experiences with it.

In October 1982, a small international symposium was held at the Gesellschaft fUr Strahlen- und Umweltforschung mbH (GSF) in Munich as a satellite meeting of the IX International Conference on Analytical Cytology. The symposium focussed on cytometric approaches to biological dosimetry, and was, to the best of our knowledge, the first meeting on this subject ever held. There was strong encouragement from the 75 attendees and from others to publish a proceedings of the symposium. Hence this book, containing 30 of the 36 presentations, has been assembled. Dosimetry, the accurate and systematic determination of doses, usually refers to grams of substance administered or rads of ionization or some such measure of exposure of a patient, a victim or an experimental system. The term also can be used to describe the quantity of an ultimate, active agent as delivered to the appropriate target material within a biological system. Thus, for mutagens, one can speak of DNA dosimetry, meaning the number of adducts produced in the DNA of target cells such as bone-mar row stem cells or spermatogonia."

The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) is a scientific foundation which addresses critical health and safety issues of national and international concern. ILSI promotes international cooperation by providing the mechanism for sci entists from government, industry and universities to work together on co operative programs to generate and disseminate scientific data. The members and trustees of the Institute believe that questions regarding health and safety are best resolved when scientists can examine and discuss issues, as an in dependent body, separate from the political pressures of individual countries and the economic concerns of individual companies. Frequently, meaningful assessment of the risk of a test substance is hindered by the inherent inconsistencies in the system. The development and refinement of methods and systems to evalute the safety of chemicals have evolved in a rapid and largely unplanned fashion. Attempts to improve the system have largely been directed toward broad general concerns, with little attention being given to specific problems or issues. A failure to resolve these problems has frequently resulted in increased testing costs and complications in the assessment and extrapolation of the results. In response to these difficulties, ILSI has assembled highly qualified and renowned scientists from research institutes, universities, government and in dustry, with relevant scientific knowledge and expertise regarding the issues that complicate risk assessment procedures."

"Rheumatic Disease" is the second monograph in a new series on management and treatment in major clinical subspecialties and patient groups. Further volumes will be published over the next few years. Each book is complete in its own right. The whole series, however, has been prepared to fill a gap, perceived by the publisher, myself and the volume authors, between standard text books of medicine and therapeutics and research reviews, sympo sia' and original articles in specialist fields. Each volume aims to provide a concise, up to date account of treatment in its subject area with particular reference to drug therapy. Wherever pos sible, authorship has been undertaken by practising clinicians who themselves have training and experience in clinical pharma cology. The volumes are intended to be guides to treatment, to assist in the choice of drug and other treatment and to provide easy references to drug interactions and adverse reactions. The aims of the series should be upheld by this volume on "Rheumatic Disease." The book has been prepared in Glasgow and Newcastle. The authors, Drs. Hilary Capell, Terry Daymond and Carson Dick, are not only respected clinicians and rheumato logists but have wide clinical and research experience in the clinical pharmacology of antirheumatic drugs and therapeutic management of connective tissue disease and other areas of rheumatology. This volume combines practical pragmatic man agement with new concepts in drug treatment."