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      New Perspectives on Chinese Herbal Medicine (Zhong-Yao) Research and Development

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          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Synthetic chemical drugs, while being efficacious in the clinical management of many diseases, are often associated with undesirable side effects in patients. It is now clear that the need of therapeutic intervention in many clinical conditions cannot be satisfactorily met by synthetic chemical drugs. Since the research and development of new chemical drugs remain time-consuming, capital-intensive and risky, much effort has been put in the search for alternative routes for drug discovery in China. This narrative review illustrates various approaches to the research and drug discovery in Chinese herbal medicine. Although this article focuses on Chinese traditional drugs, it is also conducive to the development of other traditional remedies and innovative drug discovery.

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          New therapeutic aspects of flavones: the anticancer properties of Scutellaria and its main active constituents Wogonin, Baicalein and Baicalin.

          Min Li‐Weber (2009)
          Traditional Chinese medicines have been recently recognized as a new source of anticancer drugs and new chemotherapy adjuvant to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy and to ameliorate the side effects of cancer chemotherapies however their healing mechanisms are still largely unknown. Scutellaria baicalensis is one of the most popular and multi-purpose herb used in China traditionally for treatment of inflammation, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and bacterial and viral infections. Accumulating evidence demonstrate that Scutellaria also possesses potent anticancer activities. The bioactive components of Scutellaria have been confirmed to be flavones. The major constituents of Scutellaria baicalensis are Wogonin, Baicalein and Baicalin. These phytochemicals are not only cytostatic but also cytotoxic to various human tumor cell lines in vitro and inhibit tumor growth in vivo. Most importantly, they show almost no or minor toxicity to normal epithelial and normal peripheral blood and myeloid cells. The antitumor functions of these flavones are largely due to their abilities to scavenge oxidative radicals, to attenuate NF-kappaB activity, to inhibit several genes important for regulation of the cell cycle, to suppress COX-2 gene expression and to prevent viral infections. The tumor-selectivity of Wogonin has recently been demonstrated to be due to its ability to differentially modulate the oxidation-reduction status of malignant vs. normal lymphocytic cells and to preferentially induce phospholipase C gamma 1, a key enzyme involved in Ca(2+) signaling, through H(2)O(2) signaling in malignant lymphocytes. This review is aimed to summarize the research results obtained since the last 20 years and to highlight the recently discovered molecular mechanisms.
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            Botanical characteristics, pharmacological effects and medicinal components of Korean Panax ginseng C A Meyer.

            Kwang-tae Choi (2008)
            Korean Panax ginseng C A Meyer is mainly used to maintain the homeostasis of the body, and the pharmacological efficacy of Korean ginseng identified by modern science includes improved brain function, pain-relieving effects, preventive effects against tumors as well as anti-tumor activity, enhanced immune system function, anti-diabetic effects, enhanced liver function, adjusted blood pressure, anti-fatigue and anti-stress effects, improved climacteric disorder and sexual functions, as well as anti-oxidative and anti-aging effects. Further clinical studies of these pharmacological efficacies will continue to be carried out. Korean ginseng is found to have such main properties as ginsenoside, ployacetylene, acid polysaccharide, anti-oxidative aromatic compound, and insulin-like acid peptides. The number of ginsenoside types contained in Korean ginseng (38 ginsenosides) is substantially more than that of ginsenoside types contained in American ginseng (19 ginsenosides). Furthermore, Korean ginseng has been identified to contain more main non-saponin compounds, phenol compounds, acid polysaccharides and polyethylene compounds than American ginseng and Sanchi ginseng.
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              Flavones and flavone synthases.

              Stefan Martens, Axel Mithöfer (2005)
              Within the secondary metabolite class of flavonoids which consist of more than 9000 known structures, flavones define one of the largest subgroups. Their natural distribution is demonstrated for almost all plant tissues. Various flavone aglyca and their O- or C-glycosides have been described in the literature. The diverse functions of flavones in plants as well as their various roles in the interaction with other organisms offer many potential applications, not only in plant breeding but also in ecology, agriculture and human nutrition and pharmacology. In this context, the antioxidative activity of flavones, their use in cancer prevention and treatment as well as the prevention of coronary heart disease should be emphasized. The therapeutic potential of flavones makes these compounds valuable targets for drug design, including recombinant DNA approaches. The biosynthesis of flavones in plants was found to be catalyzed by two completely different flavone synthase proteins (FNS), a unique feature within the flavonoids. The first, FNS I, a soluble dioxygenase, was only described for members of the Apiaceae family so far. The second, FNS II, a membrane bound cytochrome P450 enzyme, has been found in all other flavone accumulating tissues. This phenomenon is particularly of interest from the evolutionary point of view concerning the flavone biosynthesis and functions in plants. Recently, FNS I and FNS II genes have been cloned from a number of plant species. This now enables detailed biochemical and molecular characterizations and also the development of direct metabolic engineering strategies for modifications of flavone synthesis in plants to improve their nutritional and/or biopharmaceutical value.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Evid Based Complement Alternat Med
                Journal ID (publisher-id): ECAM
                Title: Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM
                Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation
                ISSN (Print): 1741-427X
                ISSN (Electronic): 1741-4288
                Publication date (Print): 2011
                Publication date (Electronic): 10 March 2011
                Publication date PMC-release: 10 March 2011
                Volume: 2011
                Electronic Location Identifier: 403709
                Affiliations
                1Department of Pharmacology, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China
                2Department of Applied Biology & Chemical Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
                3Hôpital de la Tour, 1217 Geneva, Switzerland
                4Center for Cancer and Inflammation Research, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, China
                5Department of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies, World Health Organization, China
                6Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, China
                Author notes
                Article
                DOI: 10.1093/ecam/neq056
                PMC ID: 3135515
                PubMed ID: 21785622
                SO-VID: ae75849e-afe5-4739-9384-737f003b3ed0
                Copyright © Copyright © 2011 Si-Yuan Pan et al.
                License:

                This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                Date received : 12 August 2009
                Date accepted : 20 April 2010
                Categories
                Subject: Review Article

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Complementary & Alternative medicine
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Complementary & Alternative medicine

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