Storax, A Promising Botanical Medicine for Treating Cardio-Cerebrovascular Diseases: A Review

In recent years, the incidence and mortality of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases have been increasing year by year, which has become global burden and challenge. Based on the holistic thinking of “brain disease affects the heart” and “heart disease affects the brain,” as well as the characteristics of multi-target and multi-path effects of Chinese medicine, Chinese medicine is more advantageous in the treatment of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. As a botanical medicine, storax is known for its resuscitation, filth avoidance and pain-relieving effects in the treatment of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. By reviewing and collating the relevant domestic and international literature in the past 10 years, we have sorted out an overview of the medicinal parts, traditional uses and chemical composition of storax. For the first time, based on the idea of “cerebral and cardiac simultaneous treatment,” the pharmacological activities and mechanisms of heart and brain protection of storax for treating cardio-cerebrovascular diseases were summarized and analyzed, showing that storax has the pharmacological effects of anti-cerebral ischemia, regulation of blood-brain barrier, bidirectional regulation of the central nervous system, anti-myocardial ischemia, anti-arrhythmia, anti-thrombosis and anti-platelet aggregation. It mainly exerts its protective effects on the brain and heart through mechanisms such as inhibition of inflammatory immune factors, anti-oxidative stress, anti-apoptosis, pro-neovascularization and regulation of NO release. On the basis of the current findings and limitations, the future research strategies and perspectives of storax are proposed, with a view to providing a reference for further application and development of this medicine, as well as contributing new thoughts and visions for the clinical application of “treating brain-heart synchronously”.

KCNQ and KCNE Isoform-Dependent Pharmacology Rationalizes Native American Dual Use of Specific Plants as Both Analgesics and Gastrointestinal Therapeutics

Indigenous peoples of the Americas are proficient in botanical medicine. KCNQ family voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels are sensitive to a variety of ligands, including plant metabolites. Here, we screened methanolic extracts prepared from 40 Californian coastal redwood forest plants for effects on Kv current and membrane potential in Xenopus oocytes heterologously expressing KCNQ2/3, which regulates excitability of neurons, including those that sense pain. Extracts from 9 of the 40 plant species increased KCNQ2/3 current at –60 mV by ≥threefold (maximally, 15-fold by Urtica dioica) and/or hyperpolarized membrane potential by ≥-3 mV (maximally, –11 mV by Arctostaphylos glandulosa). All nine plants have traditionally been used as both analgesics and gastrointestinal therapeutics. Of two extracts tested, both acted as KCNQ-dependent analgesics in mice. KCNQ2/3 activation at physiologically relevant, subthreshold membrane potentials by tannic acid, gallic acid and quercetin provided molecular correlates for analgesic action of several of the plants. While tannic acid also activated KCNQ1 and KCNQ1-KCNE1 at hyperpolarized, negative membrane potentials, it inhibited KCNQ1-KCNE3 at both negative and positive membrane potentials, mechanistically rationalizing historical use of tannic acid-containing plants as gastrointestinal therapeutics. KCNE dependence of KCNQ channel modulation by plant metabolites therefore provides a molecular mechanistic basis for Native American use of specific plants as both analgesics and gastrointestinal aids.

Choose Your Medicine

Choose Your Medicine is the first comprehensive history of the concept of freedom of therapeutic choice in the United States. It draws on legal history and the history of medicine (as well as political, intellectual, cultural, and social history) to examine the ways that persistent but evolving notions of a right to therapeutic choice have affected American law, regulation, and policy from the country’s origins to the present. It describes social movements and legal efforts dedicated to resisting government measures denying individuals an unfettered choice among therapeutic products and methods. The targets of this activism have included, among others, state medical licensing statutes, FDA restrictions on the distribution of unapproved drugs, state and federal prohibitions against medical marijuana, formulary limitations in government insurance programs, abortion restrictions, and prohibitions on physician-assisted suicide. The narrative’s protagonists range from unschooled supporters of botanical medicine in the early nineteenth century to sophisticated cancer patient advocacy groups in the twenty-first. The book considers how all of these examples, taken together, fit within the broader development of the idea of freedom of therapeutic choice in American history and law.

UPLC-MS/MS-Based Rat Serum Metabolomics Reveals the Detoxification Mechanism of Psoraleae Fructus during Salt Processing

Psoraleae Fructus (PF) is a botanical medicine widely used in Asian countries, of which salt products have higher safety and efficacy. However, the biological mechanism of the detoxification of salt-processing Psoraleae Fructus (SPF) has not yet been revealed. In this study, UPLC-MS/MS technology was used to explore the metabolic differences between SPF and PF in normal rats and reveal the mechanism of salt processing. The histopathological results of rat liver and kidney showed that the degree of liver and kidney injure in the SPF group was less than that in the PF group. The results of metabolomics showed that the detoxification mechanism of PF by salt processing might be related to glycerophospholipid metabolism, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis, arginine and proline metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, and linoleic acid metabolism. PF-induced inflammation could be reduced by regulating the expression of metabolites to achieve the purpose of salt processing and detoxification. It included reducing the production of metabolites such as 1-acyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, tyrosine, arginine, linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, and phenylacetylglycine/hippuric acid ratio and upregulating the expression of metabolites such as creatine.

The vulnerary potential of botanical medicines in the treatment of bacterial pathologies in fish

Background and Aim: The use of plant-based medicine in treating and preventing fish disease has become increasingly popular due to the resistance of bacterial pathogens to chemicals widely used in aquaculture. This study explored the vulnerary effect of botanical medicines made from local raw materials (greater celandine [Chelidonium majus L.], St. John's wort [Hypericum perforatum L.], and bur beggar-ticks [Bidens tripartita L.]) in the treatment of sturgeon bacterial pathologies in a controlled environment. Materials and Methods: The vulnerary activity of herbal infusions was studied on spontaneously infected fish by assessing the degree of wound healing at regular intervals: The state of the wound, reduction of the wound surface area, the formation of granulation tissue, epithelization, and wound contraction. Results: A positive vulnerary effect of C. majus, H. perforatum, and B. tripartita was observed, consistent with the use of these plants in folk and traditional medicine. The plant materials eliminated infection, had anti-inflammatory and vulnerary effects, stimulated granulation tissue development, and enhanced regeneration. Compared with widely accepted methods (antibiotics and other chemotherapeutic agents), botanical medicine facilitated more effective treatment over the same period without side effects. Conclusion: Practical use and the results of this study show the potential of using herbal infusions for therapeutic purposes in aquaculture.

Study of ethno-botanical shrub and its utilization in Agra district Uttar Pradesh

India has been known as a rich source for valuable medicinal Shrubs. These Shrubs are found and distributed in throughout India and various parts of world. Since the ancient time, Shrub species have been used as the source of botanical medicine by the human beings. Shrubs are the richest source of medicine due to the presence of biochemical, which are useful to cure the various diseases. Usefulness of medicinal Shrubs is well documented since the time immemorial. The present study includes ethno-botanical importance in which vegetative parts of Shrubs which is commonly used by different local community. Ethno-botanical density as well as diversity may variable region to region and habitats to habitats. Keeping this in view an extensive survey work was carried out in Agra (Western part) of Uttar Pradesh state of India, for the medicinal Shrubs resources of Agra, Uttar Pradesh to obtain info about the traditional uses, knowledge of local people and traditional healers about these popular shrubs. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that find 21 species is a useful medicinal used to treat different human and livestock ailments. Their body parts are using for curing different types of serious diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy, asthma, piles, dengue fever, typhoid fever, blood bleeding etc. in human beings, domestic animals and other wild animals. Present paper advocated to local peoples (especially of rural areas), for protection of these Shrubs and secure their life for better survival.