Through their long exposure and experience with natural resources, many local communities in Latin America have developed health care practices. Thousands of years of observation and experimentation have helped in the development of different empirical medical systems, as well as knowledge of plants, animals, and minerals. Both animals and plants provide extensive resources for new CAM approaches which may prove important for future applications. We are welcoming papers that explore different aspects of the use of natural resources in local medical systems of local people in Latin America, including health and disease perceptions, rituals, and practices, as well as studies involving the evaluation of local preparations from phytochemical and/or pharmacological point of view

Studies that integrate local practices, based on natural resources, with local institutions (hospitals, doctors, and biomedicine) are especially welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent developments in methods and theory
• Ethnopharmacological evaluations of traditional drugs
• Ethnobotany and traditional foods in health
• Historical perspective of ethnopharmacology
• Ethnopharmacology of America and psychoactive plants
• Randomized and controlled studies on traditional remedies
• Influence of migration on traditional medical systems
• Medical ethnobotany and zootherapy (the healing of human ailments by using therapeutics based on medicines from animals or ultimately derived from them is known as zootherapy)
• Ethnopharmacology in urban contexts
• Study of the perception, use, and management of botanicals or other types of pharmaceuticals
• Ethnopharmacology and development of new drugs

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: