Medicinal plants have a long history of therapeutic use. The knowledge of how to use plants for medicine has been passed down through generations by word of mouth and ancient pharmacopoeias. Modern science has devoted considerable research to characterizing the efficacy and mechanisms of action of many medicinal plants, but this remains an area of vast research potential. This special issue is devoted to publishing the most important recent advances in the efficacy and mechanisms of action of medicinal plants for modern chronic diseases.

Modern chronic diseases cause great human suffering, health care expenses, and lost productivity despite the advances of modern medicine. Evidence-based medicinal plants have great potential as safe and effective alternative medicines for modern chronic diseases. Although medicinal plants are an established part of complementary and alternative medicine, many lack scientific support, since medicinal plants are the products of experience-based medicine. Nevertheless, numerous scientific studies support the efficacy of many medicinal plants.

We cordially invite your contribution of research articles or reviews on traditional and newly discovered medicinal plants which have developed into evidence-based medicines through scientific experiments. However, it should not include emerging botanical medicines that do not have sound experimental evidence for efficacy in humans. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Clinical trials of medicinal plants using scientific statistical analysis
• Pharmacological and molecular studies of medicinal plants using animal experiments or in vitro studies
• Isolation and analysis of the bioactive components in medicinal plants
• Standardization of botanical medicines to assure consistent bioactivities and efficacy
• Studies of medical plant extracts or isolated compounds in animal models or in vitro

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ecam/ebmp/ according to the following timetable: