Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com alcohol as a solvent and prolonged the extraction time. 13 Nowadays, phytochemical processes involve a variety of solvents among which many are hazardous to human health, environment and have impacts on biological entities at the cellular and the molecular levels. 14 Green chemistry came to solve these problems by reducing organic solvents use via its fifth principle concerning “safer, nontoxic and environmentally friendly solvents”. 15 Using water in green extraction techniques (which are environmentally friendly) is close to traditional extractions approaches; but under different conditions of heating with an increase in yield and the biological activities of the extracts with a decrease in the extraction time. 16 Indeed, various natural products have been extracted using green techniques including polyphenols 17 and essential oils. 18 It is important to mention that many activities of green extracts have been reported and evaluated especially the antibacterial and antioxidant activities. 19 Green chemistry appears to take their origin from ethnopharmacology which represents historically and scientifically the limitless source of knowledge for all human civilizations. Green chemistry reflects natural ways of extracting medicines in its fifth principle. Acknowledgements Abdelaziz Ghanemi is a recipient of a 2013 CAS-TWAS President’s Postgraduate Fellowship. Conflict of interest The author declares no conflict of interest. Referenecs 1. Sukhdev SH, Suman K, Gennaro L, et al. Extraction Technologies for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. International Centre for Science and High Technology; 2008. 2. Goetz P. Plaidoyer pour la tisane medicinale. Phytotherapie. 2004;2(1):8– 15. 3. Boubertakh B, Xin–Guang, Xiao LC, et al. A Spotlight on Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activities of Nigella glandulifera Freyn et Sint Seeds. Journal of Chemistry. 2013;2013:12. 4. Ghanemi A, Boubertakh B. Shorter and sturdier bridges between traditional Chinese medicines and modern pharmacology. Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal. 2015;23(3):330–332. 5. Ghanemi A. How important is pharmacognosy for doctors and dentists? The Saudi Dental Journal. 2015;27(1):1–2. 6. Ghanemi A. For dentists and doctors: The neglected concepts about the factors influencing the effects of drugs. The Saudi Dental Journal. 2016;28(1):1–2. 7. Ghanemi A. Is mapping borders between pharmacology and toxicology a necessity? Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal. 2014;22(6):489–490. 8. Ghanemi A. How to define a pharmacological or a toxic food? Alexandria Journal of Medicine. 2015;51(4):359–360. 9. Ghanemi A. How to map the bridges between zoology and pharmacology? The Journal of Basic & Applied Zoology. 2015. 10. Ghanemi A. How can pharmacology benefit from the concepts of evolutionary principles and adaptational mechanisms? The Journal of Basic & Applied Zoology. 2015;72:135–136. MOJ Public Health. 2015;3(3):260‒261. 260 © 2015 Benzeggouta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Ethnopharmacology-based chemical extraction approaches: toward further optimizing green chemistry Volume 3 Issue 3 - 2015 Naïrouz Benzeggouta, 1 Abdelaziz Ghanemi 2,3,4 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Mohamed Boudiaf University, M’sila, Algeria 2 Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, China 3 Kunming College of Life Science, China 4 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Correspondence: Abdelaziz Ghanemi, Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, Tel 008613678784743, Email lakisha.harris@ymail.com Received: December 14, 2015 | Published: December 31, 2015 MOJ Public Health Opinion Open Access Opinion Ethnopharmacology shows that the extraction of active ingredients from medicinal and aromatic plants began with protocols that used simple natural solvents such as water, vegetable oils and animal fats. 1 Ancient healers made herbal preparations, especially teas and aromatic plants extracts, to obtain therapeutic drugs and preparations used in different aspects of the daily life. Importantly, they knew the importance of hot water in optimizing the active substances extractions. 2 Therefore, the study of traditional medicines 3,4 and Pharmacognosy 5 remains and important filed for medical students and health care professionals 6 especially within the context of modern pharmacological and toxicological sciences 7–10 that provide increasing evidences about the biological effects extracts and natural compounds have on cell cultures 11 and animals 12 and thus, provide starting points to develop new therapies for a variety of pathologies. It has been reported that the use of organic solvents in the extraction of active ingredients from natural compounds started with Nicolas Lémery (1645-1715), a French apothecary who both used