In the European Union, traditional herbal medicines that are regarded as “acceptably safe, albeit not having a recognized level of efficacy” fit into a special category of drugs (“traditional herbal medicine products”) for which requirements of non-clinical and clinical studies are less rigorous. A regulation proposal published by the Brazilian National Health Surveillance (Anvisa) defines a si...

INTRODUCTION Premature ejaculation (PE) is defined as ejaculation within 1 minute (lifelong PE) or 3 minutes (acquired PE), inability to delay ejaculation, and negative personal consequences. Management includes behavioral and pharmacologic approaches. AIM To systematically review effectiveness, safety, and robustness of evidence for complementary and alternative medicine in managing PE. ME...

The bioavailability of some orally administered botanical extracts is erratic and poor due to limited gastro-intestinal absorption. Bioavailability can be improved by using new delivery systems which can enhance the rate and the extent of solubilization into aqueous intestinal fluids and the capacity to cross biomembranes. Phospholipids based drug delivery system have been found promising for b...

Our objective was to examine the effect of an Iranian herbal drug in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial among 180 female students at Isfahan University dormitory aged 18 to 27 who suffered from primary dysmenorrhea was undertaken. The participants were randomly divided into three groups: herbal drug, mefenamic acid, and placebo. The...

Plants have been used throughout human history for their medicinal properties and herbal medicines are popular worldwide. Since, all herbal medicines are mixtures of more than one active ingredient, such combinations of many substances obviously increase the likelihood of interactions taking place. Although herbal medicines have been used as remedies for number of illnesses, many of them have s...

The pregnane X receptor (PXR, NR1I2) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily that is activated by a myriad of compounds and natural products in clinical use. Activation of PXR represents the basis for several clinically important drug-drug interactions. Although PXR activation has undesirable effects in patients on combination therapy, it also mediates the hepatoprotective effects exhib...

Herbs have been used as medical treatments since the beginning of civilization and some derivatives (eg, aspirin, reserpine, and digitalis) have become mainstays of human pharmacotherapy. For cardiovascular diseases, herbal treatments have been used in patients with congestive heart failure, systolic hypertension, angina pectoris, atherosclerosis, cerebral insufficiency, venous insufficiency, a...

The submission of data on genotoxicity is a precondition for marketing authorisation respectively registration of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) with well established or traditional use in some countries. In European regulatory guidelines prepared by the Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) of the European drug regulatory agency EMA, a test strategy is defined giving a pragmatic fram...

The re-emerging drug resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa require novel drug development strategies. A 3-step matrix based herbal bioprospection approach was devised to identify potential herbal leads targeting process of spread of micro-organism in the host cell. 05 bioactivity parameters were selected on the basis of extensive literature surge relevant to confer multi-drug resistance a...

AIMS To evaluate clinical trials and neurochemical mechanisms of the action of traditional herbal remedies and acupuncture for treating drug addiction. METHODS We used computerized literature searches in English and Chinese and examined texts written before these computerized databases existed. We used search terms of treatment and neurobiology of herbal medicines, and acupuncture for drug ab...