Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mass with susceptibility to fracture. It may only be discovered when fractures of the osteoporotic bone have occurred. Therefore, prevention and early treatment of osteoporosis are important to avoid its complications. Some of the anti-osteoporotic drugs available are associated with serious side effects. The best example is estrogen replacement therapy, which was reported to increase the risks of breast cancer, uterine cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular and thromboembolic diseases (WHI Study, 2003). Researches are on the way to find alternative anti-osteoporotic agents with comparable effectiveness but with minimal side effects. It is to be hoped that the increased ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological researches will lead to the development of novel drug candidates.

We invite investigators to submit review articles and original research that evaluate the role of medicinal plants and natural products on the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis and its complications such as fractures and deformities. We are particularly interested in articles that explore aspects of anti-osteoporosis using animals and human studies. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Studies using in vivo and in vitro models of osteoporosis for assessments of their anti-osteoporotic activities and their possible mechanisms of action
• Human studies on the use of medicinal plants and natural products for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis or osteopenia
• Role of the medicinal plants and natural products on the phases of osteoporotic fracture healing, that is, the reactive, repair, and remodeling phases
• Comparison of the efficacy of the medicinal plants and natural products with the standard anti-osteoporotic drugs using animal models or clinical trials
• Elucidating the active ingredients, the mechanism of action, and potential toxicities of these medicinal plants and natural products
• Elucidating the role of inflammation and oxidative stress in osteoporosis

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/ according to the following timetable: