A natural history of botanical therapeutics

Abstract

Plants have been used as a source of medicine throughout history and continue to serve as the basis for many pharmaceuticals used today. Although the modern pharmaceutical industry was born from botanical medicine, synthetic approaches to drug discovery have become standard. However, this modern approach has led to a decline in new drug development in recent years and a growing market for botanical therapeutics that are currently available as dietary supplements, drugs, or botanical drugs. Most botanical therapeutics are derived from medicinal plants that have been cultivated for increased yields of bioactive components. The phytochemical composition of many plants has changed over time, with domestication of agricultural crops resulting in the enhanced content of some bioactive compounds and diminished content of others. Plants continue to serve as a valuable source of therapeutic compounds because of their vast biosynthetic capacity. A primary advantage of botanicals is their complex composition consisting of collections of related compounds having multiple activities that interact for a greater total activity.

Investigation of antitussive and toxicological activity ofBallota limbatain mice

“…Certainly, the great civilizations of ancient Chinese, Indian, and North African provided written evidence of Man's ingenuity in utilizing plants for treatment of a wide variety of diseases (Fabricant & Farnsworth, 2001;Houghton, 2001;Phillipson, 2001;Schmidt et al, 2008). Most popular cough medicines throughout the world are based on herbal derivatives (Ziment, 2002).…”

Evaluation of the potential modulator of bacterial resistance, acute toxicity and chemical composition of Schinopsis brasiliensis Engl.

“…The mechanisms related to the synergistic effects of combining antibiotics and extracts relate primarily to factors such as the multiplicity of targets on which the mixture of bioactive compounds can act, including enzymes, receptors, ion channels, transport proteins, Chaves et al 847 DNA/RNA, antibodies and many others, as well as the suppression of bacterial resistance mechanisms for compounds present in the extract (Imming et al, 2006;Schmidt et al, 2008;Wagner and Ulrich-Merzenich, 2009). Both the antimicrobial activity and the synergistic effect may be related to the richness of S. brasiliensis regarding polyphenolic compounds and saponins since some of these compounds have already been cited as exhibiting such activities (Cowan, 1999;Gibbons, 2005Gibbons, , 2008.…”

The anticancer activity of alpha-tomatine against mammary adenocarcinoma in mice

“…This effect corresponds with the content of the agent and changes throughout the lifespan of the tomato plant; e.g. during tomato fruit maturation, the levels of ΤΟΜ decrease considerably, which, among other factors, brings about a reduction in the bitter flavour 2 . In mammals, a wide variety of health-promoting properties of ΤΟΜ have been reported, including the lowering of plasma concentrations of LDL and triacylglycerols 3 and cardiotonic 1 and antiviral activity 4 .…”