Medicinal value

Yellow mercuric oxide may be obtained by precipitation from solutions of practically any water-soluble mercuric salt through the addition of alkah. The most economical are mercuric chloride or nitrate. Although yellow HgO has some medicinal value in ointments and other such preparations, the primary use is as a raw material for other mercury compounds, eg, Millon s ha.se[12529-66-7], Hg2NOH, which is formed by the reaction of aqueous ammonia and yellow mercuric oxide. 

FIGURE F.l The research vessel Alpha Helix is used by chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to search for marine organisms that contain compounds of medicinal value. Compounds found to have antifungal or antiviral properties are then subjected to the kinds of analvses described in this section. 

In drug discovery, a chemist usually begins by investigating compounds that have already shown medicinal value. A fruitful path is to find a natural product, an organic compound found in nature, that has been shown to have healing characteristics. Nature is the best of all synthetic chemists, with billions of chemicals that fulfill as many different needs. The challenge is to find compounds that have curative powers. These substances are found in different ways random or blind collection of samples that are then tested, or collection of specific samples identified by native healers as medically effective. 

A field biologist examines a plant in a South American rainforest. The plant produces chemicals that will be investigated for their medicinal value. 

Once the empirical and molecular formulas of the active compounds are determined, then their structural formulas are sought. At that point, synthetic work can begin. The chemist can identify compounds in the material that have medicinal value and find a way to synthesize them, or prepare them in the laboratory, so that they can be made available in large quantities. 

Several coumarin derivatives have revealed pronounced medicinal value as antibacterial and antifungal agents [57,58]. Others have displayed antituber-cular activity [59] and some have insecticidal properties [60]. This prompted us to investigate the preparation of a new series of compounds containing coumarin moieties with different side chains or fused rings. 

Hyperforin, the major constituent in Hypericum perforatum (St. John s Wort), inhibits the enzymatic activity of 5-lipoxygenase and COX-1 in platelets, acts as a dual inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase and COX-1, and might have some potential in inflammatory and allergic diseases connected to eicosanoids (32), Several Hypericum species are of medicinal value in Asia and the Pacific. One of these is Hypericum erectum Thunb., the potential of which as a source of 5-lipoxygenase is given here. 

The family Lauraceae consists of 50 genera and 2000 — species of trees, shrubs, and herbs, of which 70 are of K medicinal value in the Asia-Pacific region. Lauraceae are... 

The family Solanaceae consists of about 85 genera and 2800 species of plants, of which, 80 are of medicinal value in the Asia-Pacific region. Solanaceaeare well known for their parasympatholytic tropane alkaloids, such as hyoscyamine. Classic examples are Atropa belladonna L. (belladona herb, British Pharmacopoeia 1963), Datura stramonium L. (stramonium, British Pharmacopoeia, 1963), and the dried leaves and flowering tops of Hyoscyamus... 

Artemisia stelleriana Bess., or dusty miller sagewort, beach wormwood old woman, or pai hao, fan, lu (Chinese), is a shrub that grows to 1.20 m in Japan, Korea, China, and Siberia. The whole plant is covered with a glaucous indumentum. The leaves are compound, and the lobes are rounded. The flowers are small, yellowish, and packed in globose capitula (Fig. 53). The medicinal values of Artemisia stelleriana Bess, were mentioned by Su Sung (11th century). It has been used internally for food, as carminative, to promote the growth of hair, and to stimulate mental faculties, and externally it provides a remedy for ulcers. 

In the Asia-Pacific region, AItingia excelsa Noronha (Liquidambar altingiana Bl.), Alan-gia gracilipes Hemsl. (Amyris ambrosiaca L.f.), Liquidambar orientalis Mill, and Liquidambar formosana Hance are of medicinal value. The purified basalm obtained from the trunk of Liquidambar orientalis Mill, or prepared storax (British Pharmaceutical Codex, 1969) has been used similarly as Peru basalm in the form of an ointment to treat scabies and other skin diseases, and as an ingredient of Compound Benzoin Tincture. 

Does the medicinal value of opiates outweigh their propensity for abuse ... 

Breene WM. 1990. Nutritional and medicinal value of specialt muchrooms. J Food Prot 53(10) 883—894. 

The methods used for making pigments from these and other natural dyes were more like recipes than scientific procedures and were probably derived from the work of alchemists and herbalists. The former spent their lives trying to prepare gold by dissolving all kinds of cheap substances in acids and then re-precipitating them (hence their discovery of many precipitants), while the latter sought to extract compounds of medicinal value from plants and some of their extracts must have included natural dyes. 

Information Gathering Research institute historians find accounts that Roman women preferred fair complexions and used whitening creams. Furthermore, Greco-Roman literature indicates that tin compounds had little medicinal value. 

One of the ironic things about many abused drugs is that they often have a medicinal value and can actually be used to treat various diseases and disorders, given the proper medical supervision. However, the risks of abuse and overdose make them poor treatment options. 

Amidines such as the ones presented here appear to have a number of advantages, displaying good water solubility, and not producing formaldehyde during breakdown. Varying the dialkylamino group can modulate the lipo-philicity and the rate of nonenzymatic hydrolysis, and the stability of amidines under the acidic conditions that prevail in the stomach is compatible with oral administration. Future studies will certainly reveal the potential medicinal value of amidines. 

In ancient times, poison-hemlock seed was collected green, dried and stored to be used medicinally as a sedative. The dried leaf and juice of Conium maculatum L. (Hemlock) were listed in pharmacopoeias of London and Edinburgh from 1864 to 1898, and the last official record appeared in Great Britain in the British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1934. Interest in the medicinal value of poison-hemlock has declined because of the unpredictability of its effects. The unpredictability is now understood, the toxin profile and concentration in the plant and green seed can vary dramatically because of environmental factors or, even, diurnally. 

In medicated soaps, substances of medicinal value are added. In some soaps, deodorants are added. Shaving soaps contain glycerol to prevent rapid drying. A gum called, rosin is added while making them. It forms sodium roslnate which lathers well. Laundry soaps contain fillers like sodium roslnate, sodium silicate, borax and sodium carbonate. 

CS002 Ahmad, Y. S. A Note on the Plants of Medicinal Value Found in Pakistan. Government of Pakistan Press, Karachi, 1957. 

Ferrando, R., M. M. Guilleux, and A. Guerrillot-Venet. Oestrogen content of plants as a function of conditions of culture. Nature 1961 192 1205. Ahmad, Y. S. A note of the plants of the medicinal value found in Pakistan. Govt of Pakistan Press, Karachi 1957. Walker, B. S., and J. C. Janney. Estrogenic substances. II. An analysis of plant sources. Endocrinology... 

In 1695 Dr. Nehemiah Grew published a dissertation on the medicinal value of salt from these wells (41). Dr. Grew prepared solid Epsom salt from this well water and recognized it as a unique substance The Purging bitter Salt. . . does differ in its Nature and Species from all other Salts (62, 69). Nehemiah Grew in England and Marcello Malpighi in Italy laid the foundations for the science of plant anatomy (70). 

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