Greco-Arab and Islamic Herbal Medicine Traditional System, Ethics, Safety, Efficacy, and Regulatory Issues

Bashar Saad is professor of cell biology and immunology at the Arab American university. He has received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Zurich and observed his post-doc at the Institute of neurobiology at the ETH Zurich where he also served as senior scientist at the Institute of Toxicology. Later on he served as senior scientist in tissue engineering at the Institute of Polymers at the ETH Zurich and at the Research Division, Dep. of Surgery, University Hospital Zurich. He made a significant contribution in combining cell biology, immunology, and 3D cell culture techniques with Arab-Islamic herbal wisdom. His research interests include the anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties of medicinal plants. He has written more than eighty original papers as well as review articles and book chapters on Arab-Islamic herbal medicine. He is the author of the first academic book about Arab and Islamic herbal medicine to published by John Wiley in 2011. Last month, he published his third book “Medicinal Plants and their Active Compounds for Diabetes and Obesity Prevention and Treatment. Published by Springer, 2017” This work presents a systematic review of traditional herbal medicine and their active compounds, as well as their mechanism of action in the prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity. Prof. Saad is a member of the editorial board of Evidence based Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Oxford Journals, The Open Complementary Medicine Journal, Bentham Science Publishers, and Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Awards: Best research award (1998) of Swiss surgical society for the development of versatile biodegradable biomaterials Best research award (2010) of “The Israeli Society for Complementary Medicine” Hijawi Awards of the Arab American University 2007 and 2009 for best undergraduate research projects Best researcher (2017) at the Arab American University-Palestine