China
Africa
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Contested medicines in twentieth-century China
Published in Vivienne Lo, Michael Stanley-Baker, Dolly Yang, Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine, 2022
A third sea-change occurred after the Japanese seizure of Burma and Dutch Indonesia in the spring of 1942. Britain’s loss of its colony of Burma forced the closure of the Burma Road, which had been the major land route for bringing all foreign products into China, including medicines. When the Japanese took over Indonesia, the Allied powers lost access to ninety per cent of the world’s supply of quinine, the principal prophylactic and treatment drug for malaria. Since malaria was a primary killer among soldiers, the loss of quinine sparked even more research into Chinese medical products that might fully or partially replace imported medicines. Research on Dichroa febrifuga (Ch. Changshan 常山) and other drugs used to treat malaria was of particular importance in this period (Lei 2014).
Natural Medicines
Published in Dilip Ghosh, Pulok K. Mukherjee, Natural Medicines, 2019
Ashok Vaidya, Hiteshi Dhami-Shah, Shobha Udipi
Semecarpus anacardium (Bhallataka) is traditionally given with milk in Ayurveda. When toxicity studies were carried out in animals there was mortality that was nullified when the plant was co-administered with milk. Similarly, in the traditional Chinese formulation, Dichroa febrifuga was always administered with other plants such as Glycyrrhiza glabra, Ziziphus jujuba and Zingiber officinale (Rasoanaivo et al. 2011). This was forgotten in clinical trials for malaria. There was good efficacy, but tolerability of the plant was considered unacceptable with a high incidence of the side effects nausea and vomiting. The additional plants effectively controlled such side effects. Such examples emerge time and again when dietary supplements are borrowed from other systems without any knowledge of the precise modes and limitations of their original drug use. The side effects of Ephedra and Piper methysticum (kava) led to their ban (National Institutes of Health 2004; FAO and WHO 2010). There are also risks of litigation when one nation’s drug is sold as a DS in another nation.
Conclusion
Published in Woon-Chien Teng, Ho Han Kiat, Rossarin Suwanarusk, Hwee-Ling Koh, Medicinal Plants and Malaria, 2016
Woon-Chien Teng, Ho Han Kiat, Rossarin Suwanarusk, Hwee-Ling Koh
It is clearly evident that medicinal plants have a vital role to play in malaria control. Medicinal plants are important sources of novel chemical scaffolds, as seen from how Artemisia annua and Cinchona bark have revolutionized malaria chemotherapy and prophylaxis. The recent progress on Dichroa febrifuga as well as the continued interest in identifying plants that are used for malaria in various communities worldwide only goes to show how nature has much more to offer in healthcare. There is certainly potential for further research in antimalarial drug discovery. Plants traditionally used for malaria have been studied extensively for their anti-malarial properties, both in vitro and in vivo, some with promising results. However, very few are further developed. The concept of standardized herbal preparations is already in place in some endemic areas, such as Ghana and Mali, although much remains to be done.
Quinazoline and quinazolinone as important medicinal scaffolds: a comparative patent review (2011–2016)
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2018
Abdul Hameed, Mariya Al-Rashida, Maliha Uroos, Syed Abid Ali, Marium Ishtiaq, Khalid Mohammed Khan
Febrifugine and isofebrifugine are naturally occurring quinazoline alkaloids (first isolated from a Chinese herb Dichroa febrifuga), and these compounds were found to possess excellent antimalarial activity. Many quinazoline/quinazolinone containing natural products have been isolated and structurally modified to modulate their biological potential against various targets. Benzomalvin A and sclerotigenin were isolated from Penicillium sp during the lead discovery for neurokinin receptor antagonists. The fungal quinazolines, such as asperlicin, were isolated from Aspergillus alliaceus and found to act as potent cholecystokinin (CCK) antagonist. Luotonin A alkaloid was isolated from the aerial part of Peganum nigellastrum possessing biological potential among isolated compounds (Figure 7) [46].