RECENT STUDIES ON TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANTS

This review will discuss several new drugs which were discovered and developed in recent years from traditional Chinese medicines by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica. Huperzine A was isolated from Huperzia serrata, a plant used for the treatment of contusion, strain, haematuria, and swelling in Chinese folk medicine. Pharmacological studies have indicated that huperzine A has powerful and reversible anticholinesterase activity. Y-maze methods have shown that huperzine A improves learning and retrieval processes, and facilitates memory retention. Huperzine A is used to treat patients with myasthenia gravis and Alzheimer's disease in China. Sarmentosin, a cyanogenic glucoside was isolated from the whole plant of Sedum sarmentosium. This plant has long been used to treat hepatitis by folk medicine. Sarmentosin significantly lowers the SGPT level of patients suffering from chronic viral hepatitis, and shows a suppressive effect on cell-mediated immune responses in mice. The root of Aconitum is well known in traditional Chinese medicine. Many Aconitum alkaloids have been isolated. Most show potent bioactivities, but with severe toxicity. Recently, some alkaloids such as 3-acetylaconitine, appaconitine, have shown significant anesthetic activity and exhibit a higher therapeutic index. Guan-fu base A was isolated from the tuber root of Aconitum coreanum. Guan-fu base A has antiarrhythmic action and is now in clinical trials. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Author: ZHU DY, CHINESE ACAD SCI, SHANGHAI INST MAT MED, SHANGHAI 200031, PEOPLES R CHINA

Source: DRUG DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH 1996 OCT;39(2):147-157

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Chinese Herbal Medicine as Effective as Conventional Therapy for Treating Cirrhosis in Rats (Apr '96)

WESTPORT, Apr 08 (Reuters) - The authors of a study that evaluated the effectiveness of four therapies, one of which was traditional Chinese herbal medicine, in a rat model of cirrhosis have found that all four therapies were effective. Drs. Zhang Manna and Song Guopei of Jilin, China, and Dr. Gerald Y. Minuk, of the University of Manitoba, describe their work in the April issue of Gastroenterology.

First, they induced liver fibrosis in Wistar rats by administering carbon tetrachloride. Then the rats were randomized to one of four treatment groups: ciprofloxacin, selenium plus vitamin E, hepatic stimulator substance, and a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. The latter consisted of boiled turtle shell, pangolin scales, leeches, ginseng, thorowax and other "minor" ingredients.

Drs. Manna, Guopei and Minuk say all four therapies decreased the amount of hepatic fibrosis, but the most effective therapy was the Chinese herbal concoction.

Gastroenterology 1996;110:1150-1155.

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