Herbal medicines for asthma: a systematic review

Huntley, Alyson; Ernst, Edzard

doi:10.1136/thorax.55.11.925

Cited by 145 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Different plants species were used by Togolese TH to heal asthma attack. The use of herbal-derived medicines is increasing in therapies of immune disorders such as allergy and chronic inflammatory and asthma (Huntley and Ernst 2000). Herbal medicines have the advantage of being cheap and are associated with fewer incidences of adverse reactions when compared to current pharmaceutical treatment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Herbal preparations have been cited as the third most popular complementary treatment modality by British asthma sufferers (Huntley and Ernst, 2000;Urata et al, 2002). Consequently, in the recent decades, the medicinal plants used in the management of the disease have attracted the attention of some authors, through the screening for immunomodulatory activity of plant extracts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethnobotanical Study of Plants Used to Treat Asthma in the Maritime Region in Togo

Gbekley

Katawa

Karou

et al. 2016

AJTCAM

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Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in modern society and it is evident that its incidence and severity are increasing, however very little is known about the plants used in the management of the disease. This study therefore aimed to document the plants usage in the Togolese traditional medicine to treat asthma. Methodology: From January to June 2015, an ethnobotanical survey was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire with traditional healers (THs) in the southern region of Togo. The importance of the plants species was assessed by the calculated use values. Results: In Total, 121 THs (92 males and 29 females) were interviewed and 98 plants species belonging to 54 families were identified as curing asthma. The most represented families were: Leguminosae with 7 species followed by Euphorbiaceae and Rutaceae contributing with 6 and 5 species respectively. Based on the calculated use values the most important species were Carcica papaya L., Cataranthus roseus L., Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh., Piper guineense Thonn., Eucalyptus citriodora Hook., Eucalyptus globules Labill. and Euphorbia hirta L. The leaves and the root were the parts predominantly used to prepare the formulations, mainly decoctions, administrated by oral route. Clinical manifestations such as wheezing (91.74%), difficulty as speaking or coughing (73.55%), dyspnea (66.94%), dry cough (52.89%), sweating and increased heart rate (52.07%) were used by TH to diagnose the disease. Conclusion: This study showed initial evidence of the use of plant materials by Togolese TH to heal asthma. These results could be a starting point for laboratory screenings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnobotanical Study of Plants Used to Treat Asthma in the Maritime Region in Togo

Gbekley

Katawa

Karou

et al. 2016

AJTCAM

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“…The phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids have been subjected to clinical trials either in the form of pure compounds, such as tylocrebrine for anticancer, or of, for example, alkaloid ex- tracts or leaf powders for antibronchial asthmatics (Huntley and Ernst, 2000;Staerk et al, 2000Staerk et al, , 2002. The trials using tylocrebrine for anticancer treatment were withdrawn because of nervous side effects in 1960s (Staerk et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-Inflammatory Mechanisms of Phenanthroindolizidine Alkaloids

Yang¹,

Chen²,

Wu³

et al. 2005

Mol Pharmacol

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The molecular mechanisms for the anti-inflammatory activity of phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids were examined in an in vitro system mimicking acute inflammation by studying the suppression of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/interferon-␥ (IFN␥)-induced nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 cells. Two of the phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids, NSTP0G01 (tylophorine) and NSTP0G07 (ficuseptine-A), exhibited potent suppression of nitric oxide production and did not show significant cytotoxicity to the LPS/IFN␥-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, in contrast to their respective cytotoxic effects on cancer cells. Tylophorine was studied further to investigate the responsible mechanisms. It was found to inhibit the induced protein levels of tumor necrosis factor-␣, inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase (COX)-II. It also inhibited the activation of murine iNOS and COX-II promoter activity. However, of the two common responsive elements of iNOS and COX-II promoters, nuclear factor-B (NF-B) and adaptor protein (AP)1, only AP1 activation was inhibited by tylophorine in the LPS/IFN␥-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. Further studies showed that the tylophorine enhanced the phosphorylation of Akt and thus decreased the expression and phosphorylation levels of c-Jun protein, thereby causing the subsequent inhibition of AP1 activity. Furthermore, the tylophorine was able to block mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase 1 activity and its downstream signaling activation of NF-B and AP1. Thus, NSTP0G01 exerts its anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting expression of the proinflammatory factors and related signaling pathways.Phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids are a small group of compounds well known for their profound cytotoxic activity (Pettit et al., 1984;Abe et al., 1998;Staerk et al., 2000Staerk et al., , 2002 and thus have been exploited as potential therapeutic leads for anticancer agents (Staerk et al., 2002). These alkaloids were also shown to have anti-inflammatory, antiasthmatic, and antianaphylactic properties with consequences of altered immunological status in vivo (Gopalakrishnan et al., 1979(Gopalakrishnan et al., , 1980Raina and Raina, 1980;Ganguly and Sainis, 2001;Staerk et al., 2002). Although adenyl cyclase was stimulated in asthmatic patients' peripheral leukocytes treated with tylophorine (Raina and Raina, 1980), the molecular mechanisms of actions of these phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids for aforementioned functions are not clear as yet. Moreover, the analysis and knowledge of the structure-activity relationships of the phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids with their biological function are also scarce.Inflammation is a central feature of many pathological conditions and is mediated by a variety of soluble factors and cellular signaling events. For example, NF-B-dependent gene expression plays an important role in inflammatory responses and increases the expression of genes encoding cytokines and receptors involved in proinflammatory enzymes such as iNOS and COX-II (Giuliani et al....

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“…Its effects against jaundice, [6] inflammation, [7] tumor formation [8] have been reported. In addition, the role of this plant as anti-asthmatic, [9] hypotensive, analgesic, convulsant and rheumatic activities [10] have been reported. The leaves are used as diaphoretic, emetic and expectorant.…”

Section: World Journal Of Pharmaceutical Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%