V monografii predstavleny rezul'taty mnogoletnikh issledovaniy po izucheniyu rasteniy, traditsionno ispol'zuemykh v pishchu, s tsel'yu rasshireniya ikh primeneniya v farmatsevticheskoy praktike. V knige obobshcheny i sistematizirovany literaturnye dannye, a takzhe rezul'taty sobstvennykh issledovaniy v oblasti izucheniya nekotorykh lekarstvennykh rasteniy, shiroko kul'tiviruemykh vo mnogikh stranakh. V otnoshenii rassmatrivaemykh ob"ektov privedeny sistematicheskoe polozhenie, botanicheskaya kharakteristika, svedeniya po khimicheskomu sostavu, primeneniyu v traditsionnoy i nauchnoy meditsine i razvitiyu vozdelyvaniya kul'tury v promyshlennykh masshtabakh. Obobshcheny svedeniya o peptidakh, kak perspektivnogo klassa BAS. Monografiya prednaznachena dlya fitokhimikov, botanikov, farmakologov, tekhnologov, vrachey i shirokogo kruga chitateley, interesuyushchikhsya lekarstvennymi rasteniyami i voprosami fitoterapii.