Fw: [paracelsus] UK scientists turn to Chinese medicine for new cures

[Guest guest]

paracelsus <Paracelsus

Monday, September 11, 2000 10:05 AM

[paracelsus] UK scientists turn to Chinese medicine for new cures

 

 

>

> UK scientists turn to Chinese medicine for new cures

>

> Updated 10:29 AM ET September 11, 2000

>

> By Patricia Reaney

>

> LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists are turning to traditional Chinese

> medicine and using extracts from sage and other plants to develop new

> treatments for Alzheimer's disease and pelvic pain, they said on Monday.

>

> Researchers from Oxford Natural Products Plc, a British plant-based

> pharmaceutical company, and doctors from Oxford University told a

> science conference they hoped to begin a clinical trial early next year

> of a new treatment for pelvic pain and menstruation based on three

> Chinese plants.

>

> " It is the first randomised controlled trial in the West of a

> traditional Chinese medicine product to treat painful periods, " Dr

> Stephen Kennedy, a gynaecologist at Oxford University, told the British

> Association for the Advancement of Science conference.

>

> Eighty women will be recruited for the study that will test the remedy,

> the first produced by Oxford Natural Products.

>

> If it is successful the company said it would investigate developing the

> treatment as a new remedy to relieve menstrual pain.

>

> " It is a mixture of three indigenous Chinese plants, all of which have

> historical use in treating women's complaints, " said Dr Peter Hylands,

> of Oxford Natural Products.

>

> He refused to reveal what the plants were, but said they were being

> grown at a company site in Beijing enabling the firm to guarantee the

> quality and origin of the plants and their extracts.

> The company has also developed new technology to analyse the extracts.

>

> " The main goal...is to develop our own products using this technology

> and since the leads come from traditional medicine we can use the data,

> explaining that the materials had been exposed to patients over many

> hundreds of years, to guarantee and allow us early clinical evaluation, "

> Hylands added.

>

> Kennedy said two-thirds of women suffer from menstrual pain and

> three-quarters of them find the symptoms disabling.

>

> He thinks the herbal treatment will act as a muscle relaxant but without

> many of the side effects of currently available drugs for pelvic and

> menstrual pain.

>

> Professor John Wilkinson of Middlesex University is taking a similar

> approach to developing a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease

> from sage extract.

>

> Wilkinson and his colleagues are using traditional herbs, robotic

> systems and computer technology to test the effects of thousands of

> different plant extracts.

>

> They have tested purified compounds from sage extract to see if they

> inhibit an enzyme called acetyl cholinesterase. The amount of the

> enzyme in the brain is thought to be linked to memory loss in

> Alzheimer's disease.

>

> " What we are doing is trying to develop a herbal extract which could be

> used as an acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor for Alzheimer's disease and

> other areas of the brain, " he said.

>

>

__________________________

> .............Paracelsus - Clinical Practice in the Healing

Arts.............

> ........ sponsored by Integrative Medical Arts - IBISmedical.com

.........

> http://franklin.oit.unc.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=paracelsus

> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

> You are currently d to paracelsus as: chemenway

> To send a blank email to

leave-paracelsus-104370S

> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

> visit the HealthWWWeb and Integrative Medical Arts websites:

> .. http://www.HealthWWWeb.com .. http://www.integrativemedicalarts.com ..

> ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ..

> learn more about IBIS - The Integrative BodyMind Information System,

Interactions: IBIS Guide to Drug-Herb and Drug-Nutrients Interactions, and

other IBISmedical.com Products

> ......... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ......

...

> ......Integrative Medicine, Natural Health and Alternative Therapies....

>