The medical folklore in Europe has long been considered an interesting topic for ethnographers alone. However, the recent growing global interest in CAM therapies has shown that, while a lot of work is still necessary for the bio-pharmacological assessment of natural resources used in folk medical systems, much research is needed for recording and documenting in a detailed manner disappearing practices and remedies.

Taking into consideration that a few of these remedies could be among the most interesting CAMs of tomorrow, we welcome papers reporting the results of field ethnobiological studies conducted on European folk medicines (including medicinal foods) that explore uses of natural products, as well as folk medical rituals/diets, and their links to health and disease perceptions.

Studies showing how to concretely integrate folk medical practices within evidence-based CAM practices and public health policies are especially welcome.

Ethnobotanical quantitative meta-analysis and studies on the links between folk and historical medical practices will only be considered if they are based on in-depth and original field ethnographic/ethnobiological data. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Field medical ethnobotany, zootherapy, ethnogeology, and hydrotherapy
• Traditional ritual healing practices
• Cross-cultural comparisons among folk medicines
• Links between folk medical practices and sustainable management of natural environment/environmental “health”
• Local food medicines, namely, foods considered “healthy” or able to improve human health
• Links between folk medical practices and historical scholarly medicine
• Medical ethnobiology among migrants/newcomers in Europe and among European diasporas in other continents
• Ethnoveterinary field studies and eventual links to folk therapies for humans
• Clinical evaluation of European folk medicines
• Safety of European folk medicines and interactions/synergies with drugs
• Public health studies on the integration of folk medicines within evidence-based medical systems (including cost-effectiveness ratio)

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: