Tiny Worms Employed to Unlock Keys to Herbal Medicines

[The Straight Story]

Tiny Worms Employed to Unlock Keys to Herbal Medicines

ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2010) — A team of researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), writing in the science journal PLos ONE, have developed a biologic method to tease out which compounds from herbal medicines and medicinal herbal mixtures produce their reputed medicinal benefits.


"This provides the first step to find, from all of the hundreds of compounds in herbs, which ones have potential for medicinal purposes. And you can do this very quickly and efficiently," said co-author Laura Dosanjh, graduate student with the School of Pharmacy at UMB.

Science has not been very helpful in determining the efficacy of herbal medicines in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example, has so far sided with science only once to approve an herb-based treatment with multiple active ingredients -- an ointment for genital warts made from green tea leaves.

Now, using tiny worms that live only 20 days, the team sorted out which compounds found in two common Chinese herbal formulations showed most potential for their stated purpose: extending life expectancy.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100329082009.htm