Is anyone using herbal drugs for Alzheimer's disease and other neuro-degenerative diseases. How to certainly specify the pathways affected by a herbal extract if we are not able to extract a single compound from it. And how can we justify the research done with whole extract in the scientific world?
Please discuss!!!
The issue of identifying unique pathways for complex herbal products is one of the continuing challenges associated with the use of natural products as pharmaceuticals to treat Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. And, of course, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 specifically prohibits dietary supplements, including herbs, from making any claim for the treatment, prevention, mitigation or cure of any disease. So these compounds should be used to support the normal structure and function of the body and its many systems. Having said that, there are promising naturally occurring substances such as l-ergothioneine and gamma glutamylcysteine that have been discussed in the literature as being of significant interest in relation to both Alzheimer's and Parkinsons. These are naturally occurring compounds that can be isolated from their natural environment as minor components of a variety of foods and both fall into the category of dietary supplements. Nevertheless, the pathways in which they work may be easier to identify than complex herbal products or mixtures of complex herbal mixtures.
if there's no paper can give you ideas for this issue, I think that methods on proteomics or genomics may works, such as 2D & MS, or mRNA microarray.
Bernie, what you say may be true from a pharmaceutical perspective, but is it possible there are synergistic interactions of which we may not be aware? Is not the whole more than the sum of its parts? For example, if I get my potatoes in the form of potato chips, and my wheat in the form of pastries made with white flour, etc, then take vitamin and mineral supplements, does that constitute a healthy diet? No. The balance is found in the most natural form of the food, and will be the healthiest. I am not a promoter of herbal products, nor do I take them, but perhaps we would to better to keep an open mind toward them and NOT simply to parse out the "active ingredient" for treating this or that condition. Just a thought.
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