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Medicines
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Safety of Herbal Materials
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Safety of Herbal Materials

A special issue of Medicines (ISSN 2305-6320).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2015) | Viewed by 28629

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Il-Moo Chang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Korean Ginseng Research Institute, Seoul National University, 30 Gajeong-Ro, Yuseong-ku Daejeon, Seoul 305-805, Korea
Interests: Safety of herbal materials; Safety and efficacy of ginseng

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Herbal materials are resources of various herbal medicines, including traditional herbal medicines, dietary supplements, and functional cosmetics. Increasingly, consumer and regulatory agencies demand scientific evidence, efficacy, and safety with regard to the products and services sold by industries in the fields of integrative (including complementary and alternative medicine) and traditional medicine. In this current Special Issue, safety of herbal materials is a theme and submission of manuscripts is highly encouraged. See the key words.

Prof. Dr. Il-Moo Chang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Medicines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.


Keywords

  • herbal materials used for dietary supplements (functional food) and cosmetics
  • botanical drugs (herbal medicines)
  • traditional herbal formulae
  • herbal materials derived from animal sources
  • herbal materials derived from mineral sources
  • criteria of the herbal materials consists of both forms of extract, powder, tinctures and a single/mixture of isolated constituents

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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334 KiB  
Article
Studies on Pharmacokinetic Drug Interaction Potential of Vinpocetine
by Vamshi K. Manda, Bharathi Avula, Olivia R. Dale, Amar G. Chittiboyina, Ikhlas A. Khan, Larry A. Walker and Shabana I. Khan
Medicines 2015, 2(2), 93-105; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicines2020093 - 05 Jun 2015
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 7329
Abstract
Background: Vinpocetine, a semi-synthetic derivative of vincamine, is a popular dietary supplement used for the treatment of several central nervous system related disorders. Despite its wide use, no pharmacokinetic drug interaction studies are reported in the literature. Due to increasing use of dietary [...] Read more.
Background: Vinpocetine, a semi-synthetic derivative of vincamine, is a popular dietary supplement used for the treatment of several central nervous system related disorders. Despite its wide use, no pharmacokinetic drug interaction studies are reported in the literature. Due to increasing use of dietary supplements in combination with conventional drugs, the risk of adverse effects is on the rise. As a preliminary step to predict a possibility of drug interaction during concomitant use of vinpocetine and conventional drugs, this study was carried out to evaluate the effects of vinpocetine on three main regulators of pharmacokinetic drug interactions namely, cytochromes P450 (CYPs), P-glycoprotein (P-gp), and Pregnane X receptor (PXR). Methods: Inhibition of CYPs was evaluated by employing recombinant enzymes. The inhibition of P-gp was determined by calcein-AM uptake method in transfected and wild type MDCKII cells. Modulation of PXR activity was monitored through a reporter gene assay in HepG2 cells. Results: Vinpocetine showed a strong inhibition of P-gp (EC50 8 µM) and a moderate inhibition of recombinant CYP3A4 and CYP2D6 (IC50 2.8 and 6.5 µM) with no activity towards CYP2C9, CYP2C19 and CYP1A2 enzymes. In HLM, competitive inhibition of CYP3A4 (IC50 54 and Ki 19 µM) and non-competitive inhibition of CYP2D6 (IC50 19 and Ki 26 µM) was observed. Activation of PXR was observed only at the highest tested concentration of vinpocetine (30 µM) while lower doses were ineffective. Conclusion: Strong inhibition of P-gp by vinpocetine is indicative of a possibility of drug interactions by altering the pharmacokinetics of drugs, which are the substrates of P-gp. However, the effects on CYPs and PXR indicate that vinpocetine may not affect CYP-mediated metabolism of drugs, as the inhibitory concentrations are much greater than the expected plasma concentrations in humans. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety of Herbal Materials)
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362 KiB  
Article
Disintegration Test of Health Food Products Containing Ginkgo Biloba L. or Vitex Agnus-Castus L. in the Japanese Market
by Naoko Sato-Masumoto, Sayaka Masada, Satoshi Takahashi, Sachiko Terasaki, Yoichi Yokota, Takashi Hakamatsuka and Yukihiro Goda
Medicines 2015, 2(2), 47-54; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicines2020047 - 23 Apr 2015
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5392
Abstract
For many years now, a number of Western herbs have been widely used in health food products in Japan and as pharmaceuticals in Europe. There are few or no mandated criteria concerning the quality of these herbal health food products, thus clarification is [...] Read more.
For many years now, a number of Western herbs have been widely used in health food products in Japan and as pharmaceuticals in Europe. There are few or no mandated criteria concerning the quality of these herbal health food products, thus clarification is warranted. Here, we performed disintegration tests of 26 pharmaceutical and health food products containing the Western herbs ginkgo leaf and chaste tree fruit, in accord with the Japanese Pharmacopoeia. All eight pharmaceutical herbal products found in the European market completely disintegrated within the defined test time, and 11 of the 18 tested herbal products distributed as health foods in Japan disintegrated. Among the incompatible products identified in the Pharmacopoeia test, some products remained intact after incubation in water for 60 min. To ensure the efficacy of Western herbal products sold as health food in Japan, quality control, including disintegration, is therefore recommended, even though these products are not regulated under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety of Herbal Materials)
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Review

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396 KiB  
Review
Safety Analysis of Panax Ginseng in Randomized Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review
by Young-Sook Kim, Jung-Yoon Woo, Chang-Kyun Han and Il-Moo Chang
Medicines 2015, 2(2), 106-126; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicines2020106 - 08 Jun 2015
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 15285
Abstract
Background: Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer is one of the most frequently used herbs in the world. The roots of Panax ginseng have been used as a traditional tonic and medicine for thousands of years in Korea and China. Today, ginseng root is used [...] Read more.
Background: Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer is one of the most frequently used herbs in the world. The roots of Panax ginseng have been used as a traditional tonic and medicine for thousands of years in Korea and China. Today, ginseng root is used as a dietary supplement and complementary medicine and for adjuvant therapeutics worldwide. The efficacy of ginseng has been studied in a wide range of basic research and clinical studies. However, it has been reported that the results from clinical studies are conflicting, and they depend on the parameters of the protocol design including the conditions of the participants and the types of ginseng used such as red ginseng, white ginseng, fermented ginseng and cultured ginseng. [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety of Herbal Materials)
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