1. COOLEST PERSONALITY = H Wagner

Wagner has been cranking for decades on all the important stuff, and he keeps updating the big picture in herbal medicine. This year he has published on synergy, and the application of “omic” technologies in phytomedicine. He is a perennial on immunomodulators and adaptogens, and one of the consistent intellects of natural product research and its impact on phytotherapy. Now in his 80’s - go Bert!

2. MOST UNCOOL PERSONALITY = Edzard Ernst

For a while there, it was hard to think of who might succeed poor old Varro Tyler as the biggest panjandrum with a personal crusade to debunk herbal medicine, but in the last year or so Ernst has been the outstandingly prolific smug, arrogant, pontificatory self-important “authority” of “evidence based” criticism of herbal medicine not to mention every other “CAM” modality.

In fact we have to say that he is now definitively out of control, with opinion pieces and editorial commentaries way outnumbering his so called systematic reviews. So much so that Ernst and evidence based herbal medicine will become the subject of one of the 2007 Herbal Hypothesis series - look for our forthcoming piece “The Importance of Being Ernst”.

3. COOLEST TOPIC = HERBAL MELANIN

If you missed this one, check back in herblog posts this year under the “research” category. This is a fascinating and still unfolding story, but it is deepening our understanding of the spectrum of influences that immunomodulating herbs may exert, and the mechanisms involved, such as Toll-like receptors and inflammatory pathway signaling cascades. And a special mention of thanks to Dr Pascoe who took the trouble to write us very graciously after we blogged a little harshly about his paper on melanin in echinacea. Watch this space, especially Pascoe et al….

4. MOST UNCOOL TOPIC = BLACK COHOSH TOXICITY

This is not going away despite the complete lack of any hard boiled data supporting hepatotoxcity. Needless to say, the Medical Journal of Australia, (a sort of protofascist rag for medical ignorati) is a key source for so called “reports” of cimi toxicity. The main point is that the herb is being negatively profiled - in police parlance - “fitted up” for regulatory restrictions….meanwhile acetominophen remains the leading cause of liver failure requiring hepatic transplant.. why do we not hear about that? Duh.

5. COOLEST HERB WEB SITE

This is a close call with Michael Moore’s site, but for sheer hard graft you have to hand it to Henriette Kress, she is the unrivalled internet herb maven, and sworn enemy of all bots, crawlers and spammers. It maybe the dark nights of the northern Winter in Finland (huh where?) , but Henriette seems to be permanently on line while running her own practice and making medicines, growing herbs and taking pictures. Go Hetty.

6. MOST UNCOOL SITE

Got to give this to Sloane Kettering Memorial. A barrage of blatant anti-herb propaganda for cancer patients that is BS from top to bottom, masquerading as scientific “information” about “integrative therapeutics” for people with cancer from a so-called “center of excellence” (my arse) SO, meditation, Reiki, sound therapy etc etc (yawn) are all fine for cancer patients - but herbs –no way. These people suck, big time. Avoid, may damage your health.

7. COOLEST HERB PRODUCT COMPANY = NATURA HEALTH PRODUCTS

8. MOST UNCOOL PRODUCT = NCD (Zeolite)

What a pathetic scam. The ignorant fools peddling this MLM product are guilty of profound stupidity but more disturbingly they try and push this insoluble volcanic effluent as a science based “cure” for everything from cancer to whatever ails you - classic snake oil and seriously unethical. Early placebo effects (common with new MLM products) are dissipating, but these people persist, motivated like all MLMers solely by personal greed. See herblog posts under “scams” for details. Uncool.

8. HERBAL HALL OF FAME = MICHAEL MOORE

The HERBLOG top award of the year goes to Michael Moore. After an incredible 28 years of running his residential course in the South West, Michael is converting it all to an on-line learning system: as usual all home-grown as well as developed on the Apple Mac platform. Michael had some health scares this year, but has bounced right back and is going to be pushing his unique hybrid of energetic botanical medicine, South West materia medica, and chaneling of Michael Moore wisdom mind for a whole lot longer…go check out his new DVD offerings . Salute Michael. (more…)

This study catches the eye - until you try and actually read it. I grabbed the full text, and tried to read it - half a dozen times. I have never come across such an incomprehensible load of complete nonsense - it can’t have been “peer-reviewed” unless the reviewers were all experts in double-dutch. No doubt we will see it quoted everywhere soon as an example of the dangers of echinacea….which is an established anticancer herb…. but beware anyone citing this paper except as an example of abject illiteracy and utter confusion. They won’t have read it - because its impossible to read.

Proliferative Activity of Echinacea angustifolia Root Extracts on Cancer Cells: Interference with Doxorubicin Cytotoxicity.
Huntimer ED, Halaweish FT, Chase CC: Chem Biodivers. 2006 Jun;3(6):695-703

Doxorubicin is an anticancer drug that causes apoptosis in cells, but cardiotoxicity limits the cumulative dose that can remain in the blood. Echinacea extracts have been prescribed to supplement cancer chemotherapy. In a recent study, it was reported that Echinacea purpurea extracts protected noncancerous cells from apoptosis. Our study aimed to determine interference with doxorubicin chemotherapy, and if fractions and compounds from Echinacea angustifolia roots protected the cells. Cervical and breast cancer cells were treated with the Echinacea samples and doxorubicin. At 0.05 and 0.5 muM doxorubicin concentration, cynarine increased HeLa cell growth by 48-125% and 29-101%, respectively (p<0.01). At 0.05 muM doxorubicin concentration, chicoric acid increased cell growth by 23-100% (p<0.01). When MCF-7 cells were treated with Echinacea and doxorubicin, the ethyl acetate fraction increased cell growth by 20-25%, and chicoric acid increased cell growth by 10-15%. Cynarine showed proliferative activity on HeLa cells, but showed antiproliferative activity on MCF-7 cells. Results indicate that phenolic compounds are responsible for proliferative activity. Studies with individual compounds show that chicoric acid and cynarine interfered with cells treated with 0.5 muM doxorubicin. The results of this study show that Echinacea herbal medicines affect cell proliferation despite cancer treatment, and that herbal medicines require further study with respect to anticancer drugs.

PMID: 17193302 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Thank heavens for the BMJ. The Lancet is often a good read, but editorially the BMJ is way ahead of the field. The US medical journals JAMA, et alia are so depressingly out of touch its a wonder anyone bothers at all. Interestingly, there are no guarantees that monolithic conservatism will carry a medical journal through in the 21st century as the surge towards open access and web 2.0 content intensifies. The collapse of the CMAJ being a good case in point. The BMJ is uniquely refreshing in its advocacy of the need to understand and develop cutting edge informatics at the level of professional medical content…including Web 2.0 formats, tools, and practice.

Check out the Web 2.0 article in the recent issue at http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7582/1283

and in the same issue a barbed little cameo piece on drug ADR’s arguing that anecdotal evidence is likely the best evidence in these scenarios, rather than controlled trials….hmmm. http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7581/1267

Par-4-Dependent Apoptosis by the Dietary Compound Withaferin A in Prostate Cancer Cells.
Srinivasan S, Ranga RS, Burikhanov R, Han SS, Chendil D: Cancer Res. 2006 Dec 21

Deletion or mutation of the androgen receptor (AR) renders prostate tumors refractory to apoptosis by androgen ablation, the mainstay of prostate cancer therapy. To identify novel therapeutics that can induce apoptosis regardless of the AR status of prostate cancer cells, we screened dietary herbal compounds using a reporter assay for the prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) gene, which induces p53- and PTEN-independent and cancer-selective apoptosis. One of the compounds, withaferin A (WA), a major constituent of the dietary compound Withania somnifera, induced Par-4-dependent apoptosis in androgen-refractory prostate cancer cells and regression of PC-3 xenografts in nude mice. Interestingly, restoration of wild-type AR in PC-3 (AR negative) cells abrogated both Par-4 induction and apoptosis by WA. Individually, WA and anti-androgens induced neither Par-4 nor apoptosis in androgen-responsive prostate cancer cells, yet in combination, WA and anti-androgen synergistically induced Par-4 and apoptosis in androgen-responsive prostate cancer cells. Thus, when judiciously combined with anti-androgens, WA inhibits survival of both androgen-responsive and androgen-refractory prostate cancer cells by a Par-4-dependent mechanism. As Par-4 up-regulation induces apoptosis in most tumor cells, our findings can be extended to high-throughput screens to identify synergistic combinations for both therapy-sensitive and therapy-resistant cancers. [Cancer Res 2007;67(1):246-53].

PMID: 17185378 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Application of the “-Omic-” technologies in phytomedicine.:Ulrich-Merzenich G, Zeitler H, Jobst D, Panek D, Vetter H, Wagner HPhytomedicine. 2006 Dec 21;14(1):70-82

The proof of efficacy of phytopreparations and the determination of their mode of action are permanent challenges for an evidence-based phytotherapy. The technology platform of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics (”-omic-” technologies) are high-throughput technologies. They increase substantially the number of proteins/genes that can be detected simultaneously and have the potential to relate complex mixtures to complex effects in the form of gene/protein expression profiles. Provided that phytopreparation-specific signatures in the form of gene/protein expression profiles can be developed, these technologies will be useful for the chemical and pharmacological standardization and the proof of the toxicological potential of a plant extract. Over a long-term perspective they may economize the proof of efficacy, the determination of the mode of action of phytomedicines and allow to investigate herbal extracts without prominent active principle(s). The application of this genomics revealed already that gene expression profiles induced by single drugs and the ones induced by the combination of the same drugs can be entirely different. These results make the information of the mode of action of isolated “active principles/lead substances” of phytopreparations questionable. The application of the “-omic-” technologies may lead to a change of paradigms towards the application of complex mixtures in medicine and open the new field of phytogenomics, -proteomics and -metabolomics.

PMID: 17188482 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Compounds from rose (Rosa rugosa) flowers with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory activity. Fu M, Ng TB, Jiang Y, Pi ZF, Liu ZK, Li L, Liu F J Pharm Pharmacol. 2006 Sep;58(9):1275-80

The aqueous extracts and ethanol precipitates of aqueous extracts of 18 medicinal herbs traditionally used in China were screened for their ability to inhibit human immunodeficiency virus type-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT) in-vitro. Among the samples screened at a concentration of 500 microg mL-1, dried rose (Rosa rugosa) flowers showed the strongest inhibition. The ethanol precipitate of the aqueous extract of R. rugosa was processed and two components (P1 and P2) were obtained after ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose. Then, P1-a (Mr 150 kDa) and P1-b (Mr 8 kDa) were isolated from P1 by gel filtration on Sephadex G-200. They inhibited the activity of HIV-1 RT with an IC50 of 158 nM and 148.16 microg mL-1 (18.5 microM), respectively. Further structural analyses revealed that P1-a was a polysaccharide-peptide complex, and P1-b was a polymer consisting of acteoside and acteoside derivatives identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, assays of carbohydrate and protein contents and high-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

PMID: 16945187 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Here’s another. 160 mg Black cohosh? That’s = half a millilitre of 1:3 tincture qd. . Of course it won’t do anything.
Morons.

Treatment of vasomotor symptoms of menopause with black cohosh, multibotanicals, soy, hormone therapy, or placebo: a randomized trial Newton KM, Reed SD, LaCroix AZ, Grothaus LC, Ehrlich K, Guiltinan: JAnn Intern Med. 2006 Dec 19;145(12):869-79

BACKGROUND: Herbal supplements are widely used for vasomotor symptoms. OBJECTIVE: To test the efficacy of 3 herbal regimens and hormone therapy for relief of vasomotor symptoms compared with placebo. DESIGN: 1-year randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted from May 2001 to September 2004. SETTING: Group Health, Washington State. PARTICIPANTS: 351 women age 45 to 55 years with 2 or more vasomotor symptoms per day; 52% of the women were in menopausal transition and 48% were postmenopausal. MEASUREMENTS: Rate and intensity of vasomotor symptoms (1 = mild to 3 = severe), and Wiklund Vasomotor Symptom Subscale. INTERVENTIONS: 1) Black cohosh, 160 mg daily; 2) multibotanical with black cohosh, 200 mg daily, and 9 other ingredients; 3) multibotanical plus dietary soy counseling; 4) conjugated equine estrogen, 0.625 mg daily, with or without medroxyprogesterone acetate, 2.5 mg daily; or 5) placebo. RESULTS: Vasomotor symptoms per day, symptom intensity, Wiklund Vasomotor Symptom Subscale score did not differ between the herbal interventions and placebo at 3, 6, or 12 months or for the average over all the follow-up time points (P > 0.05 for all comparisons) with 1 exception: At 12 months, symptom intensity was significantly worse with the multibotanical plus soy intervention than with placebo (P = 0.016). The difference in vasomotor symptoms per day between placebo and any of the herbal treatments at any time point was less than 1 symptom per day; for the average over all the follow-up time points, the difference was less than 0.55 symptom per day. The difference for hormone therapy versus placebo was -4.06 vasomotor symptoms per day for the average over all the follow-up time points (95% CI, -5.93 to -2.19 symptoms per day; P < 0.001). LIMITATIONS: The trial did not simulate the whole-person approach used by naturopathic physicians. Differences between treatment groups smaller than 1.5 Vasomotor symptoms per day cannot be ruled out. CONCLUSION: Black cohosh used in isolation, or as part of a multibotanical regimen, shows little potential as an important therapy for relief of vasomotor symptoms. Clinical Trials Registration number: NCT00169299.

PMID: 17179056 [PubMed - in process]

Here is one…

Echinacea purpurea supplementation stimulates select groups of human gastrointestinal tract microbiota.: Hill LL, Foote JC, Erickson BD, Cerniglia CE, Denny GS:J Clin Pharm Ther. 2006 Dec;31(6):599-604

Background and objective: The objective of this research was to determine the effects of the dietary supplement Echinacea purpurea on aerobic and anaerobic bacteria common to the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Botanical extracts have shown in vitro antimicrobial effects against certain pathogenic bacteria. It is uncertain if medicinal herbs have any effect against pathogenic bacteria or on the native GI microbiota. Methods: Fifteen human subjects consumed 1000 mg of standardized E. purpurea for 10 days. Faecal samples were collected at baseline, 10 days and 17-18 days following supplementation. Samples were tested for select aerobic and anaerobic bacteria using plate culture microbiological methods. Results and discussion: Significant increases were found for total aerobic bacteria, Bacteroides group and Bacteroides fragilis after E. purpurea exposure. Supplementation did not significantly alter the number of enteric bacteria, enterococci, lactobacilli, bifidobacteria or total anaerobic bacteria. Conclusion: Echinacea supplementation has altered the GI microbiota. The health consequences associated with this change are unknown but previous research has shown increased Bacteroides concentrations associated with diarrhoea, inflammatory bowel disease and increased risk of colon cancer. Additional research should delineate the role of Echinacea in the stimulation of Bacteroides and describe the effects of other botanical supplements to the GI microbiota.

PMID: 17176365 [PubMed - in process]

Michael Moore, elder, herbalist, teacher, founder and Director of the South West School of Botanical Medicine, author of many books and a monster web site resource of classical texts, plant images and more is recovering from a serious illness. An appeal for funds to help with medical expenses has been set up, check out the following site and/or pdf file

Appeal web page:

Appeal pdf download

This is hard to believe. Many HERBLOG readers will know of Frank Stermitz’s nifty work at the University of Colorado on berberine-containing plants showing the presence of a natural MDR inhibitor (5MCP) in these plants that enables the whole plant extract to overcome bacterial resistance as compared to isolated berberine. So now these guys in Boston have produced a synthetic MDR inhibitor (of unkown toxicity) and conjugated it to pure berberine in order to overcome drug resistance? Have they really got nothing better to do? Mind boggling. Ka-ching - which drug company is funding this research? Whole plant anybody?

Conjugating berberine to a multidrug efflux pump inhibitor creates an effective antimicrobial.: ACS Chem Biol. 2006 Oct 24;1(9):594-600 Lewis K, Moy TI, Ausubel FM, Casadei G, Bremner JB, Ball AR, Samosorn S

In bacteria, multidrug-resistance pumps (MDRs) confer resistance to chemically unrelated amphipathic toxins. A major challenge in developing efficacious antibiotics is identifying antimicrobial compounds that are not rapidly pumped out of bacterial cells. The plant antimicrobial berberine, the active component of the medicinal plants echinacea and golden seal, is a cation that is readily extruded by bacterial MDRs, thereby rendering it relatively ineffective as a therapeutic agent. However, inhibition of MDR efflux causes a substantial increase in berberine antimicrobial activity, suggesting that berberine and potentially many other compounds could be more efficacious if an effective MDR pump inhibitor could be identified. Here we show that covalently linking berberine to INF 55 , an inhibitor of Major Facilitator MDRs, results in a highly effective antimicrobial that readily accumulates in bacteria. The hybrid molecule showed good efficacy in a Caenorhabditis elegans model of enterococcal infection, curing worms of the pathogen.

PMID: 17168555 [PubMed - in process]