Some aspects of toxic contaminants in herbal medicines

This review attempts to portray the discovery and development of medicine from galenical to genomical, with a focus on the potential and role of ayurveda. Natural products, including plants, animals and minerals have beenthe basis of treatment of human diseases. Indigenous people derived therapeutic materials from thousands of plants; however discovering medicines or poisons remains a vital question. Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medicinal system being practised for thousands of years. Considerable research on pharmacognosy, chemistry, pharmacology and clinical therapeutics has been carried out on ayurvedic medicinal plants. Many of the major pharmaceutical corporations have renewed their strategies in favour of natural products drug discovery and it is important to follow systems biology applications to facilitate the process. Numerous drugs have entered the international pharmacopoeia through the study of ethnopharmacology and traditional medicine. For ayurveda and other traditional medicines newer guidelines of standardization, manufacture and quality control are required. Employing a unique holistic approach, ayurvedic medicines are usually customized to an individual constitution. Traditional knowledge-driven drug development can follow a reverse pharmacology path and reduce time and cost of development. New approaches to improve and accelerate the joint drug discovery and development process are expected to take place mainly from innovation in drug target elucidation and lead structure discovery. Powerful new technologies such as automated separation techniques, high-throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry are revolutionizing drug discovery. Traditional knowledge will serve as a powerful search engine and most importantly, will greatly facilitate intentional, focused and safe natural products research to rediscover the drug discovery process.

Ayurveda and natural products drug discovery

Herbs and related products are commonly used by patients who also seek conventional health care. All physicians, regardless of specialty or interest, care for patients who use products that are neither prescribed nor recommended. Some herbs have been extensively studied, but little is known about others. When a patient asks for advice regarding the use of a particular herb, how should a physician respond? Similarly, how does a physician determine if a patient's symptoms are caused by a "remedy"? This review attempts to answer these questions by investigating pertinent definitions, the history of herbs in medicine, epidemiology and prevalence of herbal use, and relevant psychosocial issues.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articlepdf/210301/ira70688.pdf

Herbs as Medicines

Although changing in size, structure and function, the African family has persistently maintained its place as the central human social unit Beyond the traditional African family--whether in the nuclear or the extended form--is a network of people, most of whom are connected by kin or blood relationships, termed the clanship system Patterns of family treatment and care are deeply embedded in this wider kinship system The AIDS epidemic has caused adverse psychosocial and economic consequences leading to change in the family structure, and thus disturbed the capacity of the nuclear and extended family to respond to the needs of members afflicted by HIV and AIDS Hence, the clanship system could become the locus of AIDS activity designed to ensure the well-being and continuity of the family where its leadership undertakes to sustain, to reorganize, or to create wholly new families or structures among populations being devastated by AIDS New associations based on common emotional bonds of caring beyond kinship ties will be necessary to support some vulnerable members However, for such to prove durable in the troubled socio-economic context of Sub-Saharan Africa, these will need strong links to or derive their legitimacy from the resilient traditional social network, the African kinship system

The impact of HIV/AIDS on the family and other significant relationships: The African clan revisited

Dong quai is a Chinese herbal supplement touted for treatment of menstrual cramping, irregular menses, and menopausal symptoms. Phytochemical analyses found it to consist of natural coumarin derivatives, as well as constituents possessing antithrombotic, antiarrhythmic, phototoxic, and carcinogenic effects. A 46-year-old African-American woman with atrial fibrillation stabilized on warfarin experienced a greater than 2-fold elevation in prothrombin time and international normalized ratio after taking dong quai concurrently for 4 weeks. No identifiable cause was ascertained for the increase except dong quai. The patient's coagulation values returned to acceptable levels 1 month after discontinuing the herb. One animal study suggests a pharmacodynamic interaction between the product and warfarin, but the true mechanism remains unknown. Practitioners should be aware of the possibility of such an interaction and should inform patients of potential hazards of taking the two together.

Potentiation of Warfarin by Dong Quai

Plant-derived drugs have an important place in both traditional and modern medicine. For this reason a special effort to maintain the great diversity of plant species would undoubtedly help to alleviate human suffering in the long term. Proven agroindustrial technologies should be applied to the cultivation and processing of medicinal plants and the manufacture of herbal medicines.

Nature's medicinal bounty: don't throw it away.

The best of both worlds: bringing traditional medicine up to date.

Traditional Medicine, Update from the World Health Organization, Geneva

At present, WHO does not have an official policy on acupuncture. The Organization's policies are usually developed after a debate has taken place on a particular health issue. There has not yet been a debate on acupuncture. This paper reviews WHO's efforts to produce a standard acupuncture nomenclature as a first step towards ensuring that a debate on acupuncture takes place in an atmosphere of greater understanding of the contribution that acupuncture can make in the delivery of health care. Activities that the programme for traditional medicine hopes to implement in the coming years are outlined.

Olayiwola Akerele

Papers

Nature's medicinal bounty: don't throw it away.

The best of both worlds: bringing traditional medicine up to date.

Traditional Medicine, Update from the World Health Organization, Geneva

WHO and the development of acupuncture nomenclature: overcoming a Tower of Babel.

Towards the utilization of traditional medicine in national health services.