Herbalism (“herbology” or “herbal medicine”) is the use of plants for medicinal purposes, and the study of such use. Plants have been the basis for medical treatments through much of human history, and such traditional medicine is still widely practiced today. Modern medicine recognizes medical plants as a form of alternative medicine, as the practice of herbalism is not strictly based on evidence-gathered scientific method. Modern medicine, does, however, make use of many plant-derived compounds as the basis for evidence-tested pharmaceutical drugs, and phytotherapy works to apply modern standards of effectiveness testing to herbs and medicines that are derived from natural sources.

In the present book, twelve typical literatures about medical plants in infectious diseases published on international authoritative journals were selected to introduce the worldwide newest progress, which contains reviews or original researches on medical science, herbalism, virology, epidemiology, ect. We hope this book can demonstrate advances in medical plants in infectious diseases as well as give references to the researchers, students and other related people.