Skip to main content
PMC home page
Bulletin of the World Health Organization logoLink to Bulletin of the World Health Organization
. 1985;63(6):965–981.

Medicinal plants in therapy*

Norman R Farnsworth, Olayiwola Akerele, Audrey S Bingel, Djaja D Soejarto, Zhengang Guo
PMCID: PMC2536466  PMID: 3879679

Abstract

One of the prerequisites for the success of primary health care is the availability and use of suitable drugs. Plants have always been a common source of medicaments, either in the form of traditional preparations or as pure active principles. It is thus reasonable for decision-makers to identify locally available plants or plant extracts that could usefully be added to the national list of drugs, or that could even replace some pharmaceutical preparations that need to be purchased and imported. This update article presents a list of plant-derived drugs, with the names of the plant sources, and their actions or uses in therapy.

Full text

PDF
965

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ames B. N., Mccann J., Yamasaki E. Methods for detecting carcinogens and mutagens with the Salmonella/mammalian-microsome mutagenicity test. Mutat Res. 1975 Dec;31(6):347–364. doi: 10.1016/0165-1161(75)90046-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barnett R. E. Effect of monovalent cations on the ouabain iniibition of the sodium and potassium ion activated adenosine triphosphatase. Biochemistry. 1970 Nov 24;9(24):4644–4648. doi: 10.1021/bi00826a004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Calle L. M., Sullivan P. D. Screening of antioxidants and other compounds for antimutagenic properties towards benzo[a]pyrene-induced mutagenicity in strain TA98 of Salmonella typhimurium. Mutat Res. 1982 Apr;101(2):99–114. doi: 10.1016/0165-1218(82)90001-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Farnsworth N. R., Morris R. W. Higher plants--the sleeping giant of drug development. Am J Pharm Sci Support Public Health. 1976 Mar-Apr;148(2):46–52. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Freeman H. J., San R. H. Use of unscheduled DNA synthesis in freshly isolated human intestinal mucosal cells for carcinogen detection. Cancer Res. 1980 Sep;40(9):3155–3157. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Makheja A. N., Vanderhoek J. Y., Bailey J. M. Effects of onion (Allium cepa) extract on platelet aggregation and thromboxane synthesis. Prostaglandins Med. 1979 Jun;2(6):413–424. doi: 10.1016/0161-4630(79)90125-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Merriman R. L., Bertram J. S. Reversible inhibition by retinoids of 3-methylcholanthrene-induced neoplastic transformation in C3H/10T1/2 clone 8 cells. Cancer Res. 1979 May;39(5):1661–1666. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Mitscher L. A., Leu R. P., Bathala M. S., Wu W. N., Beal J. L. Antimicrobial agents from higher plants. I. Introduction, rationale, and methodology. Lloydia. 1972 Jun;35(2):157–166. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Nesnow S., Heidelberger C. The effect of modifiers of microsomal enzymes on chemical oncogenesis in cultures of C3H mouse cell lines. Cancer Res. 1976 May;36(5):1801–1808. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Norioka S., Omichi K., Ikenaka T. Purification and characterization of protease inhibitors from peanuts (Arachis hypogaea). J Biochem. 1982 Apr;91(4):1427–1434. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jbchem.a133831. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. O'Neill J. P., Brimer P. A., Machanoff R., Hirsch G. P., Hsie A. W. A quantitative assay of mutation induction at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase locus in Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO/HGPRT system): development and definition of the system. Mutat Res. 1977 Oct;45(1):91–101. doi: 10.1016/0027-5107(77)90047-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ohkoshi M. Inhibition of growth of 3-methylcholanthrene-induced mouse skin tumor by protease inhibitor [N,N-dimethylcarbamoylmethyl 4-(4-guanidinobenzoyloxy)-phenylacetate] methanesulfate. Gan. 1981 Dec;72(6):959–964. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ohuchi K., Kamada Y., Levine L., Tsurufuji S. Glycyrrhizin inhibits prostaglandin E2 production by activated peritoneal macrophages from rats. Prostaglandins Med. 1981 Nov;7(5):457–463. doi: 10.1016/0161-4630(81)90033-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Perry P., Evans H. J. Cytological detection of mutagen-carcinogen exposure by sister chromatid exchange. Nature. 1975 Nov 13;258(5531):121–125. doi: 10.1038/258121a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Pezzuto J. M., Hecht S. M. Amino acid substitutions in protein biosynthesis. Poly(A)-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis. J Biol Chem. 1980 Feb 10;255(3):865–869. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Pezzuto J. M., Moore P. D., Hecht S. M. Metabolic activation of 1-methyl-3-amino-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole and several structurally related mutagens. Biochemistry. 1981 Jan 20;20(2):298–305. doi: 10.1021/bi00505a011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Pezzuto J. M., Yang C. S., Yang S. K., McCourt D. W., Gelboin H. V. Metabolism of benzo(a)pyrene and (-)-trans-7,8-dihydroxy-7,8-dihydrobenzo(a)pyrene by rat liver nuclei and microsomes. Cancer Res. 1978 May;38(5):1241–1245. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Robinson D. S., Lovenberg W., Keiser H., Sjoerdsma A. Effects of drugs on human blood platelet and plasma amine oxidase activity in vitro and in vivo. Biochem Pharmacol. 1968 Jan;17(1):109–119. doi: 10.1016/0006-2952(68)90163-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Salmon S. E., Hamburger A. W., Soehnlen B., Durie B. G., Alberts D. S., Moon T. E. Quantitation of differential sensitivity of human-tumor stem cells to anticancer drugs. N Engl J Med. 1978 Jun 15;298(24):1321–1327. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197806152982401. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Sedwick W. D., Wang T. S., Korn D. The DNA polymerases of KB cells. Methods Enzymol. 1974;29:89–102. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(74)29012-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Sirica A. E., Hwang C. G., Sattler G. L., Pitot H. C. Use of primary cultures of adult rat hepatocytes on collagen gel-nylon mesh to evaluate carcinogen-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis. Cancer Res. 1980 Sep;40(9):3259–3267. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Stacpoole P. W., Varnado C. E., Island D. P. Stimulation of rat liver 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase activity by o,p'-DDD. Biochem Pharmacol. 1982 Mar 1;31(5):857–860. doi: 10.1016/0006-2952(82)90474-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Stich H. F., Rosin M. P., Bryson L. Inhibition of mutagenicity of a model nitrosation reaction by naturally occurring phenolics, coffee and tea. Mutat Res. 1982 Aug;95(2-3):119–128. doi: 10.1016/0027-5107(82)90251-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Suffness M., Douros J. Current status of the NCI plant and animal product program. J Nat Prod. 1982 Jan-Feb;45(1):1–14. doi: 10.1021/np50019a001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Tappel A. L. Vitamin E and free radical peroxidation of lipids. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1972 Dec 18;203:12–28. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1972.tb27851.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Ungsurungsie M., Suthienkul O., Paovalo C. Mutagenicity screening of popular Thai spices. Food Chem Toxicol. 1982 Oct;20(5):527–530. doi: 10.1016/s0278-6915(82)80059-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Von Hoff D. D., Casper J., Bradley E., Sandbach J., Jones D., Makuch R. Association between human tumor colony-forming assay results and response of an individual patient's tumor to chemotherapy. Am J Med. 1981 May;70(5):1027–1041. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(81)90859-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Waymire J. C., Bjur R., Weiner N. Assay of tyrosine hydroxylase by coupled decarboxylation of DOPA formed from 1- 14 C-L-tyrosine. Anal Biochem. 1971 Oct;43(2):588–600. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(71)90291-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Wood A. W., Huang M. T., Chang R. L., Newmark H. L., Lehr R. E., Yagi H., Sayer J. M., Jerina D. M., Conney A. H. Inhibition of the mutagenicity of bay-region diol epoxides of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by naturally occurring plant phenols: exceptional activity of ellagic acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Sep;79(18):5513–5517. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.18.5513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Woodward W. R., Ivey J. L., Herbert E. Protein synthesis with rabbit reticulocyte preparations. Methods Enzymol. 1974;30:724–731. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(74)30069-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Bulletin of the World Health Organization are provided here courtesy of World Health Organization

RESOURCES