Forest products with health-promoting and medicinal properties

Abstract

Forests are a rich renewable source of health-promoting and -medicinal products. Not only the trees but also berries, nuts and mushrooms in forests contain a multitude of natural bioactive compounds which can be used in -health-promoting products and medicines. In addition to the main structural -components that trees contain, namely cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, -thousands of -bioactive -compounds have been identified. Forest products have always had a key role in -traditional medicine which continues to be of great importance, -especially in developing countries. In the industrialized countries, the pharmaceutical -industry is again increasingly looking at plant-derived natural drugs. Plant-derived compounds help to build a bridge between the traditional medical drugs in developing countries and the modern pharmaceuticals in the developed countries. Plant-derived bioactive compounds serve especially as -preventive agents helping to maintain health. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.