China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
The Americas
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
The Smilax family contains about 200 species, and the form now known as smilax china, or china root, was imported to Spain from Mexico as a cure for syphilis in the late sixteenth century. The local Indians called the plant sarsa. From this and related plants was derived sarsaparilla, which also gained a reputation as an anti-syphilitic agent and was exported to Europe for centuries. The plant contains steroidal saponins, and a large number of pharmacologic agents, some of which have antibiotic properties. A plant extract was listed in many national pharmacopoeias until the twentieth century and is still used by herbalists as an anti-rheumatic agent and for various skin complaints (British Herbal Pharmacopoeia, 1991).
Catalog of Herbs
Published in James A. Duke, Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
Reported to be depurative, diaphoretic, sudorific, tonic, Mexican sarsaparilla is a folk remedy for arthritis, cancer, dyspepsia, eczema, fever, gonorrhea, leprosy, nephrosis, rash, rheumatism, scrofula, skin ailments, syphilis, and wounds.29,32,33 New Guinea natives apply macerated bark from the base of the stem of a Smilax species to toothache.
Abies Spectabilis (D. Don) G. Don (Syn. A. Webbiana Lindl.) Family: Coniferae
Published in L.D. Kapoor, Handbook of Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants, 2017
Medicinal properties and uses — The roots are an excellent blood purifier, diuretic, tonic, and diaphoretic. They are given in loss of appetite, dypepsia, fever, skin diseases, syphilis, leukorrhea, genitourinary diseases, and in chronic cough.3,50 A paste of the root is applied on swellings and rheumatic joints. Used as a good substitute for true sarsaparilla which is obtained from the genus Smilax.46
The history of natural progesterone, the never-ending story
Published in Climacteric, 2018
In 1938, Russell Earl Marker found that the sterol sarsasapogenin from the Sarsaparilla plant could be converted into progesterone. However, sarsaparilla was expensive and, continuing his research, he isolated in 1941 a sterol, named diosgenin, extracted from the Dioscorea species of a yam growing wild in Mexico; this sterol could also be converted into progesterone using a technique which has since become known as the ‘Marker degradation’15. After using a friend’s lab to convert diosgenin into three kilograms of progesterone, he formed in 1944 the Syntex Company in Mexico City with two partners. Because of the low cost of Russell Marker’s progesterone, it later became the preferred precursor to cortisone and, by 1951, Syntex developed the first oral contraceptive from progesterone16.
The potential of ODFs as carriers for drugs/vaccines against COVID-19
Published in Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy, 2021
Maram Suresh Gupta, Tegginamath Pramod Kumar
Turning now to ODFs of herbal extracts, Cure pharmaceuticals published US patent on herbs ((agrimony, andrographis paniculata, bistort, fenugreek, ginger, myrrh, solanum, etc.) tree and plant extracts ((licorice, shitake, sarsaparilla, slippery elm, etc.), and essential oils (clove, camphor, cinnamon, lemon, spearmint, etc.) that are formulated as multilayered edible oral thin films for management of cough/Pharyngitis [91]. Table 4 provides a list of ODFs formulated using herbal extracts. From the table, it is evident that solvent casting method is the most preferred method to fabricate herbal ODFs. Zim laboratories limited, a leading Indian company in the domain of oral thin films has published a research article on oral dissolving films of ginger [21]. Visser et al. reported ODFs of five Indonesian medicinal plants extracts namely: Lagerstroemia speciosa, Phyllanthus niruri, Cinnamomum burmannii, Zingiber officinale, and Phaleria macrocarpa [92] were prepared by solvent casting method [95]. Of these plant extracts, Phaleria macrocarpa and Zingiber officinale are associated with antiviral activity [96,97]. Song et al. evaluated antiviral activity of quercetin-7-glucoside isolated from Lagerstroemia speciosa [98]. Sri Wahyuni et al. reported antiviral activity of Phyllanthus niruri, particularly they reported its activity against hepatitis C virus [99]. Verma et al. reported ODFs of Piper betel and Foeniculum officinalis [93]. Foeniculum officinalis is reported to possess antiviral and antioxidant activity [100]. Similarly, Pawar and Butle reported ODFs of Allium sativum [94], a potent antiviral agent [101].