Myth or Fact The Truth Behind Herbal Remedies

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Myth or Fact? The Truth Behind Herbal Remedies

• Koren A. Holland
• Department of Chemistry
• Alumni College
• Gettysburg College
• June 2, 2000

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Introduction

• Historical look at drug discovery
• Natural Products
• Garlic, St. Johns Wort, Essiac
• Things to Avoid
• Resources
• Scientific Journals
• Conclusions

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Historical Look at Plant Remedies

• 5000-2000 B.C. - Urban Centers, Writing
• Illness due to Divine punishment
• Treatment confessions, exorcism, purgative
  drugs, spiritual healing
• 2000-100 B.C. - India, China, Mesopotamia have
  written medical/agricultural texts with plant
  preparations as treatment.

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Malaria and Quinine

• Cinchona bark was used to treat symptoms
  associated with malaria (fever etc)
• 1666 - Thomas Sydenham linked malaria and the
  treatment

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Malaria and Quinine

• 1819 - French chemists isolate quinine

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Garlic

• Folk-lore
• Warding off vampires
• Atherosclerotic plaques
• Scurvy (vitamin C)
• History
• Ancient Egyptians
• Vikings and Phoenicians

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Garlic

• Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654)
• English Physician Enlarged 369 herbs

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Garlic

• Garlic Web Site
• Center for Alternative Medicine Research in
  Cancer
• Garlic must be fresh

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Garlic

• useful for controlling dysentery, fighting
  parasites, detoxification, lowering fever and
  relieving stomach aches. It is also proposed that
  garlic may help to lower cholesterol, regulate
  blood sugar and blood pressure, and function as a
  blood thinner much like aspirin.
• glutathione-S-transferase
• Diallyl sulphide (DAS).

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St. Johns Wort

• Used (over-used) as a Natural anti-depression
  medication
• medication
• 0.3 of hypericin
• Link to Report

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St. Johns Wort

• Literature Review of scientific information

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St. Johns Wort
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St. Johns Wort

• Review the available references

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Essiac - Cancer Treatment?

• Essiac Web Site
• burdock root
• inner bark of slippery elm
• sheep sorrel
• Turkish rhubarb.
• watercress, blessed thistle,
• red clover and kelp

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Is Nature Better? Willow and Aspirin

• Salicylic acid Acetyl salicylic acid

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Is Nature Better? Willow and Aspirin

• The salicylate content of willow bark varies
  considerably," says Varro E. Tyler, Ph.D.,
  professor of pharmacognosy at Purdue University
  School of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Indiana,and
  author of The Honest Herbal. "You may need
  several cups of white willow bark tea to approach
  the effectiveness of two standard aspirin
  tablets."

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Is Nature Better?

• Nature is more powerful than any man-made
  chemical
• Chrondrodendron tormentosum
• Produces curare - poison arrows
• medicine?

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Ethnobotanical Approach

• Drug discovery from natural resources is very
  important for the development of new, modern
  pharmaceuticals.
• It is estimated that 265,000 flowering species
  grace the earth. Of these, less than 0.5 percent
  have been studied exhaustively for their chemical
  composition and medicinal value.-Scientific
  American 1994

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Read Carefully!
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Things to examine carefully!

• The Herbal Scam!

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Reliable Sources
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Survey

• Consumer Reports
• Surgery
• Prescription
• Herbal
• OTC

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Web Resources

• Links from other sites
• Herb Research Foundation
• American Botanical Council
• Ethnobotanical Site
• Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

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References to Journals

• Journal of Natural Products
• Journal of the National Cancer Institute
• British Journal of Cancer
• Science
• Journal of the American Medical Association
• Nature
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

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References to Journals

• Journal of Herbs, Spices, and Medicinal Plants
• The Anti-stress potential of North American
  Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.)
• compares Asian to American
• lists composition of Gensenosides and their
  effect on human metabolism
• Rg1 is a stimulant
• Rb1 is a depressant

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Portable Information - CDs

• Natural Products Explorer
• The Review of Natural Products
• The Complete German Commission E Monographs
  Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines
• By Facts and Comparisons
• Herbs for Healthcare
• A Guide to Alternative Medicine

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Conclusions

• 7000 years of herbal use
• Only 200 years of natural product discovery
• Herbal medicines are beneficial
• Herbal treatments are also toxic
• Do your homework
• Be skeptical!