Phoenix NutriScience
Advancing Your Natural Health & Wellbeing
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) represents thousands of years in treatment protocols for health, healing, and longevity and has evolved into a complex healthcare system. The following chapter is designed to give a basic concise overview of TCM principles and practices, in relation to clinical pharmacology, and focuses on mutually relevant areas of interest. Much as society learned to harness electrical currents to empower machinery, TCM theories of energetic patterns help to empower the functionality of the human body. The major theories include the vital life force, known as Qi, Yin and Yang, Five Elements, herbal medicine, multivariate diagnostics, syndrome differentiation, and acupuncture, among others. In TCM, there is a direct relationship to the energy of nature and the energetic patterns within the human body and the human consciousness. This comprehensive approach is gaining momentum in clinical and network pharmacology, as new technologies emerge regarding TCM collaborative compounds versus singular chemical constituents in treatment modalities.
Data-driven analysis of Biomedical Literature suggests broad-spectrum benefits of Culinary Herbs and Spices
Spices and herbs are key dietary ingredients used across cultures worldwide. Beyond their use as flavoring and coloring agents, the popularity of these aromatic plant products in culinary preparations has been attributed to their antimicrobial properties. Last few decades have witnessed an exponential growth of biomedical literature investigating the impact of spices and herbs on health, presenting an opportunity to mine for patterns from empirical evidence. Systematic investigation of empirical evidence to enumerate the health consequences of culinary herbs and spices can provide valuable insights into their therapeutic utility.
Dietary Supplements: Regulatory Challenges and Research Resources
The fundamental challenge in any discussion about the regulation of dietary supplements is that there is no global consensus on how the category of products known variously as dietary supplements, natural health products (NHPs), complementary medicines or food supplements in different countries is defined. For example, a product considered to be a dietary supplement and regulated as a food in the USA, in another jurisdiction may be considered a food supplement or a therapeutic good (complementary medicine) or a therapeutic good (prescription medicine) or potentially even a controlled substance. The situation is even more complicated when countries like China or India that have an existing regulatory framework for traditional medicine or phytomedicine that includes crude botanicals are considered. To add further to the confusion, many regulatory frameworks are changing.
A Critical Review to Grading Systems and Recommendations of Traditional Chinese Medicine Guidelines
China is the only country where western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are practiced alongside each other at every level of the healthcare system, and traditional Chinese treatments account for about 40% of the total. Over the past two decades, an increasing number of TCM guidelines have been developed by academic associations and government organizations in China. The Chinese guideline clearinghouse (CGC) indexed more than one hundred TCM guidelines. At least a thousand recommendations were generated by providing enormous diagnostic and therapeutic options for clinical practitioners.
Use of Medicinal Mushrooms in Layer Ration
Traditionally, mushrooms have been used for highly valued food and pharmaceutical purposes because of their role as a tonic and their benefit to health. Cultivated edible mushrooms are good sources of protein, have low-fat content, and are cholesterol free. Mushrooms are also very popular as a quality protein containing essential amino acids, adequate vitamins, minerals, and are rich source of different unsaturated fatty acids. Different bioactive components have been extracted from the fruiting body and mycelium part of mushroom and tested in invitro studies. Polysaccharides are considered to be the most activate component in mushrooms which have immune stimulating activities. In addition, the polysaccharides in mushrooms have been found to produce different cytokines and increase the weight of immune-stimulating organs in laboratory animals. Presently, researchers have become interested in the role of medicinal mushrooms in poultry production systems.
Mushrooms — Biologically Distinct and Nutritionally Unique
Mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of macroscopic filamentous fungi that grow above the ground, have been a part of the human diet and used as both food and medicine for centuries. Initially, mycology, the study of fungi, arose as a branch of botany because fungi were considered primitive plants. Fungi now are accepted as a separate kingdom based on cellular organization rather than on observable and other features.
Immunomodulatory Effects of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms and Their Bioactive Immunoregulatory Products
Mushrooms have been valued as food and health supplements by humans for centuries. They are rich in dietary fibre, essential amino acids, minerals, and many bioactive compounds, especially those related to human immune system functions. Mushrooms contain diverse immunoregulatory compounds such as terpenes and terpenoids, lectins, fungal immunomodulatory proteins (FIPs) and polysaccharides. The distributions of these compounds differ among mushroom species and their potent immune modulation activities vary depending on their core structures and fraction composition chemical modifications. This article reviews the current status of clinical studies on immunomodulatory activities of mushrooms and mushroom products.
Mushrooms and Health Summit Proceedings
The Mushroom Council convened the Mushrooms and Health Summit in Washington, DC, on 9–10 September 2013. The proceedings are synthesized in this article. Although mushrooms have long been regarded as health-promoting foods, research specific to their role in a healthful diet and in health promotion has advanced in the past decade. The earliest mushroom cultivation was documented in China, which remains among the top global mushroom producers, along with the United States, Italy, The Netherlands, and Poland. Although considered a vegetable in dietary advice, mushrooms are fungi, set apart by vitamin B-12 in very low quantity but in the same form found in meat, ergosterol converted with UV light to vitamin D2, and conjugated linoleic acid. Mushrooms are a rare source of ergothioneine as well as selenium, fibre, and several other vitamins and minerals. Some preclinical and clinical studies suggest impacts of mushrooms on cognition, weight management, oral health, and cancer risk. Preliminary evidence suggests that mushrooms may support healthy immune and inflammatory responses through interaction with the gut microbiota, enhancing development of adaptive immunity, and improved immune cell functionality.
The Effect of Sacred Lotus, Mixtures on Phenolic Profiles, Antioxidant Activities, and Inhibitions of the Key Enzymes Relevant to Alzheimer’s Disease
Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) has long been used as a food source and ingredient for traditional herbal remedies. Plant parts contain neuroprotective agents that interact with specific targets to inhibit Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Organic solvents including methanol, ethyl acetate, hexane, and n-butanol, are widely employed for extraction of sacred lotus but impact food safety. Seed embryo, flower stalk, stamen, old leaf, petal, and leaf stalk of sacred lotus were extracted using hot water (aqueous extraction). The extractions were analysed for their bioactive constituents, antioxidant and anti-AD properties as key enzyme inhibitory activities toward acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and β-secretase 1 (BACE-1). Results showed that the sacred lotus stamen exhibited significant amounts of phenolics, including phenolic acids and flavonoids, that contributed to high antioxidant activity via both single electron transfer (SET) and hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) mechanisms, with anti-AChE, anti-BChE, and anti-BACE-1 activities. Findings demonstrated that an aqueous extract of the stamen has potential for application as a functional food to mitigate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Curcumin, the Golden Nutraceutical: Multitargeting for Multiple Chronic Diseases
Curcumin, a yellow pigment in the Indian spice Turmeric (Curcuma longa), which is chemically known as diferuloylmethane, was first isolated exactly two centuries ago in 1815 by two German Scientists, Vogel and Pelletier. However, according to the pubmed database, the first study on its biological activity as an antibacterial agent was published in 1949 in Nature and the first clinical trial was reported in The Lancet in 1937. Although the current database indicates almost 9000 publications on curcumin, until 1990 there were less than 100 papers published on this nutraceutical. At the molecular level, this multitargeted agent has been shown to exhibit anti‐inflammatory activity through the suppression of numerous cell signalling pathways including NF‐κB, STAT3, Nrf2, ROS and COX‐2. Numerous studies have indicated that curcumin is a highly potent antimicrobial agent and has been shown to be active against various chronic diseases including various types of cancers, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological and autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, this compound has also been shown to be synergistic with other nutraceuticals such as resveratrol, piperine, catechins, quercetin and genistein. To date, over 100 different clinical trials have been completed with curcumin, which clearly show its safety, tolerability and its effectiveness against various chronic diseases in humans.
Coix Seed Extract Enhances the Anti-Pancreatic Cancer Efficacy of Gemcitabine through Regulating ABCB1- and ABCG2-Mediated Drug Efflux: A Bioluminescent Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Study
A deep insight into the function and kinetics of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters may aid in the development of pharmaceutics that can minimize the particular facet of chemo-resistance. We utilized bioluminescence imaging to monitor the ABC transporter mediated intracellular drug efflux function. We also investigated the potential association between the intracellular bioluminescent pharmacokinetic profiles and the anti-tumor efficacy of the coix seed extract and gemcitabine against pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. The bioluminescent pharmacokinetic parameters and pharmacodynamic index (IC50 and TGI) were determined. The expression levels ABCB1 and ABCG2 were assessed. Results showed that coix seed extract could synergistically enhance the anti-cancer efficacy of gemcitabine (p < 0.05). Meanwhile coix seed extract alone or in combination with gemcitabine could significantly increase the AUCluc while decreasing the Kluc (p < 0.01). Western blot and immunohistochemistry assay demonstrated that coix seed extract could significantly mitigate gemcitabine-induced upregulation of ABCB1 and ABCG2 protein. The Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that the bioluminescent pharmacokinetic parameters and pharmacodynamic index have strong association in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion coix seed extract could augment the efficacy of gemcitabine therapy in pancreatic cancer cells may at least partly due to the alteration of ABC transporter-mediated drug efflux function.