Concept of the Traditional Medicinal System and Holistic Health
Mehwish Iqbal in Complementary and Alternative Medicinal Approaches for Enhancing Immunity, 2023
Traditional Chinese medicine based on the holistic health approach plays a considerable role in enhancing the development of medicine and life science. In the meantime, with the dramatic rise in the frequency of chronic diseases, chemical-based medicines cannot sufficiently satisfy the needs for health preservation or moreover the prevention and management of diseases. Human health stresses the applications and development of natural drugs on a large scale, to which knowledge and experiences of traditional medicines can give a lot. Globally, the ever-rising utilisation of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine is a good sign of interest from the public in the Chinese medicinal system. Traditional Chinese medicine is now an indivisible fragment of the public health system in China. Recently, traditional Chinese medicine has progressively acquired substantial endorsement as a part of complementary and alternative systems of medicine in western regions. Chinese medicine, which is the most significant part of TCM, is nowadays utilised in the health care system of around 1.5 billion people globally (Dobos et al., 2005; Qi et al., 2013). It should be observed that in traditional Chinese medicine, numerous ingredients and herbs are blended in accordance with the firm rules to create prescriptions, which are described as formulations (Fang Ji in Chinese) (Yuan et al., 2016).
Phytochemicals: Some Basics
Scott Mendelson in Herbal Treatment of Major Depression, 2019
In the scientific literature, there are many reports of terpenes, alkaloids, and phenolics interacting with the same systems that mediate the antidepressant effects of ketamine. That is, these phytochemicals affect the activities of mTOR, GSK-3β, eEF2, and BDNF. Many have also been shown to affect the pathologies that underlie depression, i.e., oxidative damage, inflammation, stress, and insulin resistance. Some have been found to exhibit antidepressant-like effects when administered in pure form, or are constituents of plants that have been found to exhibit antidepressant effects. In the following pages, we will explore the antidepressant effects of herbs. There will also be discussion of the use of herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Although many specific herbal treatments have been used for thousands of years in that medical tradition, recent research shows that some such treatments exhibit rapid action similar to that of ketamine and may act by similar mechanisms.
Entangled worlds
Vivienne Lo, Michael Stanley-Baker, Dolly Yang in Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine, 2022
Bernie’s story is telling in several ways. Upon its introduction to those outside of Chinese immigrant communities, traditional Chinese medicine was primarily used for illnesses for which biomedicine was less effective or ineffective, or diseases and illnesses that were undiagnosed or undiagnosable by biomedicine (Zhan 2009). Indeed, one of the key moments for acupuncture and herbal medicine to enter the biomedical mainstream was during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Before bioscience could identify the cause of the disease, acupuncture entered community clinics as an experimental treatment (Zhan 2009). A national survey in the early 2000s indicated that 44% of those who used acupuncture did so because conventional biomedical treatments would not help their conditions, whereas 52% thought that it would be interesting to try (Barnes et al. 2004). These conditions include, for example, allergies and asthma, insomnia, certain pain syndromes, stress and depression, certain types of cancers that were resistant to biomedical therapies, and other chronic illnesses (Ibid.; Eisenberg et al. 1993, 1998; National Institute of Health 1997; Ni et al. 2002). It is noteworthy that many of these conditions – though by no means all – were closely associated with living an urban middle-class lifestyle. Through this association, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine came to be identified as a ‘preventive medicine’ for the cosmopolitan urban middle class (Zhan 2009).
Pharmacokinetic study on the co-administration of abemaciclib and astragaloside IV in rats
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Sen Sun, Lu Liu, Hongming Song, Hong Li
Traditional Chinese medicine has been widely used in clinic, especially in China. Except for cancer patients, some people received herbal treatments for anticancer therapy also increase the possibility of drug-drug interactions (Qi et al. 2015; Wang et al. 2020). Astragalus membranaeus (Fisch.) Bge. (Fabaceae) is a Chinese traditional medicinal plant with various pharmacological functions and has been used in the clinical treatment of breast cancer (Fu et al. 2014; Dong et al. 2022). As one of the most active ingredients of astragalus, astragaloside IV has been reported to suppress metastasis and tumour progression and enhanced the chemosensitivity of breast cancer (Jiang et al. 2017; Zheng et al. 2019; Hu et al. 2021). It is prescribed to breast cancer patients who received therapy of abemaciclib and influenced the pharmacokinetics and pharmacology of abemaciclib.
Pharmacokinetic study on the interaction between pachymic acid and bavachin and its potential mechanism
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2021
Jie Zhang, Lu Liu, Hong Li, Bin Zhang
Traditional Chinese medicine is a complex mixture of different kinds of herbs, which has gained increased attention all over the world (Harvey 2008). Co-administration of various drugs possesses multi-target and multi-level function characteristics, especially in intractable diseases with complications (Huang et al. 2018). Pachymic acid and bavachin are major active ingredients of P. cocos and P. corylifolia, respectively, which are commonly combined in the therapeutic prescription of lung cancer due to their similar anti-tumor effect (Ling et al. 2010; Ma et al. 2015; Yin et al. 2019). Combination therapy of different drugs might induce adverse interaction that leads to treatment failure and even toxicity (Hu et al. 2005). Therefore, the in vivo interaction between co-administrated drugs should be paid special attention to evaluate the risk of the drug combination.
Preliminary safety assessment of oridonin in zebrafish
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2019
Lili Tian, Donglai Sheng, Qiushuang Li, Chenxu Guo, Guofu Zhu
Based on extensive research, traditional Chinese medicine reveals an improved curative effect and reduced side effects, compared with clinical therapy (Lu et al. 2016; Kumar et al. 2016; Choi et al. 2016; Park et al. 2017). Oridonin, an effective diterpenoid compound isolated from the traditional Chinese herb Isodon rubescens (Hemsl.) H.Hara (Lamiaceae), has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, proapoptotic, antitumor and other pharmacological properties (Zhou et al. 2007; Kang et al. 2010a, 2010b; Gao et al. 2010; Liu et al. 2016; Cao et al. 2016). Notably, the underlying mechanism of oridonin in inhibiting tumour growth and metastasis is through its antiangiogenic activity by blocking c-Met, Notch and VEGF signalling (Meade-Tollin et al. 2004; Dong et al. 2014; Liu et al. 2014; Xia et al. 2017; Tian et al. 2017). Oridonin has been shown to exert anticancer effects and bypass major drug resistance mechanisms, which might be effective against drug refractory tumours (Kadioglu et al. 2018).
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