Clinical trials traditional medicinal plants

The use of plants for medicinal purposes is an ancient practice. Nature, with its wealth of traditional knowledge has been the source of inspiration for numerous drugs currently used for the improvement of life as well as treatment for a cure. Considering the beneficial role of many plants and fruits, they were included in the human diets. In many instances, the knowledge of the underlying mechanism of action of a particular natural product is incomplete. Continuous investigation can lead to new mechanisms and new structures, which may open up entirely new windows and perspectives. For instance, before the discovery of apicidin and bispyri-dinium diene, it was believed that unless there is a classical chelator for zinc ion, it cannot be a HDAC inhibitor. SAHA has been approved by FDA, which is inspired from the natural product trichostatin. The natural product, romidepsin has also been approved by FDA and many are on clinical trials. Currently, isozyme-selective inhibition for HDAC is at its nascent stage. The invention of some novel molecules or invention of some novel natural product structures with synthetic modifications will solve the problem. 

Ephedra, and other medicinal plants have been identified at European neanderthal burial sites dating from 60,000 BCE (1). Thousands of years later, Pliny accurately described the medicinal uses of ephedra. But thousands of years before Pliny, traditional Chinese healers used ephedra extracts. Chinese texts from the 15th century recommended ephedra as an antipyretic and antitussive. In Russia, around the same time, extracts of ephedra were used to treat joint pain and though recent laboratory studies confirm that ephedra might be useful for that purpose (2), additional trials and studies have not been forthcoming. In the 1600s, Indians and Spaniards in the American Southwest used ephedra as a treatment for venereal disease (3). That idea might also have had some merit, as some studies show that ephedra contains compounds with antibiotic activity called transtorines (4). Whether the transtorines will prove to be clinically useful has not been determined. 

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