Herbal and Traditional Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects PDF

Preface

The concept for this book arose during a visit by Lester Packer to the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a distinguished visiting Professor in the Medical School's Department of Biochemistry during August/September 2001.

This volume seeks to highlight traditional and herbal medicines with emphasis on both the molecular basis of their biological activity and their health effects. It is timely because there is now unprecedented interest throughout the world in bringing to light the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies used for centuries and in some cases for thousands of years. Many of these traditional medicines (TMs) are derived fromplan ts and herbs (phytomedicines) or frompro ducts that are often readily available as herbal supplements. These herbal supplements are experiencing enormous popularity in Western countries. They are administered both orally and by topical application.

Recognition of the rise in interest in alternative and complementary forms of medicine has been reflected by governmental and nongovernmental changes. For example, the United States has established new programs within the National Institutes of Health by the Office of Dietary Supplements and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which seeks to support basic and clinical research programs to verify health claims and to determine the molecular basis of the biological activity, an aim closely aligned with the concept of this book. Western and traditional medicine is now at a crossroads and the future holds great promise from merging and appropriately coordinating medical research and practice, bringing together the best of both biomedical worlds for management of health and disease.

There have been literally thousands of traditional medicines described with origins in the Chinese and Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, and tribal cultures in all continents throughout the world. Indeed, knowledge about some of these remedies is being lost in developing countries through urbanization. The list of herbal remedies is staggering, and many books, pharmacopoeias, and an extensive literature have documented their existence and reported on their beneficial effects toward health and wellbeing, disease prevention, and treatment. However, for most TMs the active principles and basic mechanisms of action are not well known.

Some herbal remedies are widely used by people or medical practitioners throughout the world. We decided that it would be important to reviewand critically evaluate the issues involved in the wider use of traditional and herbal products for health maintenance and treatment of disease: the drawbacks in their continuing and further use, issues regarding their chemistry and methods of preparation, the proper design to conduct clinical trials to evaluate their efficacy, their potential adverse affects, the challenges that lie ahead in combining traditional and western medicines, and their role in national health care and public policy issues.

We attempted to select from some of the best-case scenarios and from among the most widely used and known herbal remedies to report on their alleged effects on health and disease in the light of the current knowledge concerning their basic biological mechanisms of action and to point out directions for future fundamental and clinical studies.

We would like to acknowledge the valuable technical assistance of Ma Hnin Hnin Aung of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for her skills in communicating with the authors and coeditors to help bring about the successful completion of this book.