Phytomedicine practice

Muller D, Pfeil T, von den Driesch V. Treating depression comorbid with anxiety—results of an open, practice-oriented study with St John s wort WS 5572 and valerian extract in high doses. Phytomedicine 2003 10(suppl 4) 25-30. 

ABSTRACT This study shows that, in spite of the great biological and cultural potential in Brazil, there is, even today, no phytomedicines originating from this flora, as an alternative to allopathic anxiolytics and hypnotics prescribed by psychiatry. Thirty-nine plants with potential anxiolytic effects and 28 hypnotics were indicated in the course of ethnopharmacological surveys carried out with Afro-Brazilians and/or Quilombolas, the Caboclo population (river-dwellers), and Indians in Brazil. Practically no pharmacological studies have been found in the scientific literature as evidence of their popular use. From the phytochemical point of view, it is of interest to observe that flavonoids, essential oils, phenolic acids, and alkaloids are the chemical constituents predominantly present in these species, both in those indicated as anxiolytic, and the hypnotic. 

Mathe, A. and Ch. Franz, 1999. Good agricultural practice and the quality of phytomedicines. 

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