In ancient days, Physicians having the comprehensive knowledge of Bhaishajya Kalpana, used to prepare the drugs themselves to treat their patients. So there was no doubt in obtaining genuine drug with desired therapeutic effect. But in recent years, the growing population and their life style, industrialization etc have forced physicians to depend on market preparations. As such we find the nec...

Between July 2004 and June 2005, a cross-sectional study was performed to determine the prevalence and patterns of anti-obesity medicine use among subjects seeking obesity treatment in Taiwan. Eighteen obesity outpatient clinics were selected via a random stratified sampling method and 1,060 first-visit clients (791 females and 269 males) aged above 18 years were enrolled and then completed a s...

BACKGROUND The use of medicinal plants in the treatment of diseases has generated renewed interest in recent times, as herbal preparations are increasingly being used in both human and animal healthcare systems. Diarrhoea is one of the common clinical signs of gastrointestinal disorders caused by both infectious and non-infectious agents and an important livestock debilitating condition. Platea...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the study was to estimate potential availability of essential oil in some brands of herbal products. METHODS A comparison was performed on the basis of the essential oil yield in the unprocessed raw materials such as leaves of peppermint and lemon balm and inflorescence of chamomile as well as herbal tea bags and in dietary supplements. The yield of essential oil was d...

Malaria is a major public health problem in many tropical and subtropical countries and the burden of this disease is getting worse, mainly due to the increasing resistance of Plasmodium falciparum against the widely available antimalarial drugs. There is an urgent need for discovery of new antimalarial agents. Herbal medicines for the treatment of various diseases including malaria are an impo...

Processing (Paozhi) represents a unique Chinese pharmaceutic technique to facilitate the use of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) for a specific clinical need in the guidance of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory. Traditionally, most CHMs require a proper processing to meet the needs of specific clinical syndromes before being prescribed by TCM practitioners. During processing, significant...

The traditional therapeutic uses of some indigenous orchids of Bangladesh are described in this paper. Terrestrial (11) and epiphytic (18) orchids, 29 in total, are used by Bangladeshi rural and tribal people for the treatment of nearly 45 different diseases and ailments. Roots, tubers, pseudobulbs, stems, leaves and even whole plants are used. Some herbal preparations have miraculous curative ...

Ojeok-san (OJS) is a traditional herbal formula consisting of 17 herbal medicines that has been used to treat various disorders. In this study, quantitative analytical methods were developed using high-performance liquid chromatography equipped with a photodiode array detector to determine 19 marker compounds in OJS preparations, which was then combined with chemometric analysis. The method dev...

Herbal antidiabetic preparations are often used as an add-on therapy in diabetes and such herbal preparations often contains quercetin that can inhibit cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4. This enzyme is responsible for metabolizing pioglitazone, a commonly used antidiabetic agent. Hence, it was speculated that quercetin may influence the bioavailability of pioglitazone, which could be particularly cruci...