The use of herbal medicinal products and supplements has increased tremendously over the past three decades with not less than 80% of people worldwide relying on them for some part of primary health care. Although therapies involving these agents have shown promising potential with the efficacy of a good number of herbal products clearly established, many of them remain untested and their use are either poorly monitored or not even monitored at all. The consequence of this is an inadequate knowledge of their mode of action, potential adverse reactions, contraindications and interactions with existing orthodox pharmaceuticals and functional foods to promote both safe and rational use of these agents. Since safety continues to be a major issue with the use of herbal remedies, it becomes imperative, therefore, that relevant regulatory authorities put in place appropriate measures to protect public health by ensuring that all herbal medicines are safe and of suitable quality. This review discusses toxicity related-issues and major safety concerns arising from the use of herbal medicinal products and also highlights some important challenges associated with effective monitoring of their safety.

/pdf/the-growing-use-of-herbal-medicines-issues-relating-to-1ckeueyb3l.pdf

The growing use of herbal medicines: issues relating to adverse reactions and challenges in monitoring safety

https://chemistry.mdma.ch/hiveboard/rhodium/pdf/archive/merbst/quinoline1999.pdf

Quinoline, quinazoline and acridone alkaloids

F. Ginseng (Panax ginseng) is planted in the forest to enhance the natural ginseng resources, which have an immense medicinal and economic value. The morphology of the cultivated plants becomes similar to that of wild growing ginseng (W. Ginseng) over the years. So far, there have been no studies highlighting the physiological or functional changes in F. Ginseng and its wild counterparts. In the present study, we used proteomic technologies (2DE and iTRAQ) coupled to mass spectrometry to compare W. Ginseng and F. Ginseng at various growth stages. Hierarchical cluster analysis based on protein abundance revealed that the protein expression profile of 25-year-old F. Ginseng was more like W. Ginseng than less 20-year-old F. Ginseng. We identified 192 differentially expressed protein spots in F. Ginseng. These protein spots increased with increase in growth years of F. Ginseng and were associated with proteins involved in energy metabolism, ginsenosides biosynthesis, and stress response. The mRNA, physiological, and metabolic analysis showed that the external morphology, protein expression profile, and ginsenoside synthesis ability of the F. Ginseng increased just like that of W. Ginseng with the increase in age. Our study represents the first characterization of the proteome of F. Ginseng during development and provides new insights into the metabolism and accumulation of ginsenosides.

/pdf/proteomic-analyses-provide-novel-insights-into-plant-growth-209q1fqbwa.pdf

Proteomic Analyses Provide Novel Insights into Plant Growth and Ginsenoside Biosynthesis in Forest Cultivated Panax ginseng (F.Ginseng)

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673699064570.pdf

Herb-drug interactions

Epidemiological studies have revealed that a diet rich in plant-derived foods has a protective effect on human health. Identifying bioactive dietary constituents is an active area of scientific investigation that may lead to new drug discovery. Kaempferol (3,5,7-trihydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one) is a flavonoid found in many edible plants (e.g. tea, broccoli, cabbage, kale, beans, endive, leek, tomato, strawberries and grapes) and in plants or botanical products commonly used in traditional medicine (e.g. Ginkgo biloba, Tilia spp, Equisetum spp, Moringa oleifera, Sophora japonica and propolis). Some epidemiological studies have found a positive association between the consumption of foods containing kaempferol and a reduced risk of developing several disorders such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Numerous preclinical studies have shown that kaempferol and some glycosides of kaempferol have a wide range of pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, anti-osteoporotic, estrogenic/antiestrogenic, anxiolytic, analgesic and antiallergic activities. In this article, the distribution of kaempferol in the plant kingdom and its pharmacological properties are reviewed. The pharmacokinetics (e.g. oral bioavailability, metabolism, plasma levels) and safety of kaempferol are also analyzed. This information may help understand the health benefits of kaempferol-containing plants and may contribute to develop this flavonoid as a possible agent for the prevention and treatment of some diseases.

A review on the dietary flavonoid kaempferol.

Phylogeny of the Asian Hedyotis-Oldenlandia complex (Spermacoceae, Rubiaceae): evidence for high levels of polyphyly and the parallel evolution of diplophragmous capsules.

Ethnopharmacology of rhinoceros horn. II: Antipyretic effects of prescriptions containing rhinoceros horn or water buffalo horn.

Pharmacognostical identification of American and Oriental ginseng roots by genomic fingerprinting using arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR).

The potential application of DNA barcodes of plastid (matK, trnH–psbA, petD, and rbcL) and nuclear (internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA) DNA regions was investigated for 25 Hedyotis taxa The ITS showed the best species discrimination by resolving 23 of the species as exclusive lineages with no shared alleles between any of the 24 distinct species (H assimilis and H mellii are not supported as distinct species based on our molecular and morphological data) Conversely, rbcL performed the worst and only resolved 10 of the species as exclusive lineages, and 10 species with shared alleles Using ITS has the advantage of high PCR amplification success and it provides good intra- and interspecific variation distribution patterns The most powerful plastid markers were petD and trnH–psbA, but we could amplify and sequence trnH–psbA for only 83% of the accessions sampled Combination of ITS and petD performed extremely well, with all 24 of the distinct species resolved as exclusive lineages and no shared alleles between any of the distinct species We therefore recommend ITS, or a combination of ITS and petD, as the standard DNA barcode in Hedyotis, but acknowledge that there are no shared alleles between distinct species for matK and rbcL combined

Paul Pui-Hay But

Papers

Phylogeny of the Asian Hedyotis-Oldenlandia complex (Spermacoceae, Rubiaceae): evidence for high levels of polyphyly and the parallel evolution of diplophragmous capsules.

Ethnopharmacology of rhinoceros horn. II: Antipyretic effects of prescriptions containing rhinoceros horn or water buffalo horn.

Pharmacognostical identification of American and Oriental ginseng roots by genomic fingerprinting using arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR).

Application of DNA barcodes in Hedyotis L. (Spermacoceae, Rubiaceae)

The Biochemical of Tetradium, Euodia and Melicope and their significance in the Rutaceae