BACKGROUND Approximately two thirds of women who reach menopause develop menopausal symptoms, primarily hot flashes. Hormone therapy long was considered the first-line treatment for vasomotor symptoms. However, given the results of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), many women are reluctant to use exogenous hormones for symptomatic treatment and are turning to botanicals and dietary supplemen...

Authors: Danica T. Harbaugh Reynaud, Ph.D., CEO, AuthenTechnologies LLC Brent D. Mishler, Ph.D., Director, University and Jepson Herbaria & Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley James Neal-Kababick, Director, Flora Research Laboratories, LLC Paula N. Brown, Ph.D. Director, Natural Health and Food Products Research Group, British Columbia Institute of T...

Herbal medicines in treatment of cancer as complementary and alternative therapy are accepted increasingly with growing scientific evidences of biomedical research and clinical trials. Anticancer drugs discovered from herbal medicines have a long history and some of them have been used in clinical setting as the conventional anticancer drugs. Actually, herbal medicines are a source for anticanc...

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and their N-oxides (PANOs) have serious hepatotoxic effects in both humans and animals, necessitating a method capable of detecting, characterizing, and quantifying them using a robust assay. While triple quadrupole LC/MS systems are ideal for targeted detection, targeted analysis requires standards that are not always easily obtained. Only a fraction of known natu...

The present investigation evaluated the efficacy of a botanical supplement that delivered a concentrated dose of Echinacea purpurea (8 grams day(-1)). The participants were 13 apparently healthy, recreationally active college students (VO2 max: 51 mL O2/kg∗min). The participants were provided with a 30-day supplementation regime. Data regarding maximum aerobic capacity was collected through pre...

The use of and search for drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Ethnopharmacologists, botanists, microbiologists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals and "leads" which could be developed for treatment of infectious diseases. While 25 to 50% of current pharmaceuticals are derived from plants, none are used as antimi...