Natural Products News by CRC Press

Extracting Current Trends from Natural Sources

Research needed on safety, quality, and efficacy of herbal medicinal products The World Health Organization’s 2011 World Medicines Situation Report notes that while the global market in traditional medicines is increasing exponentially, consumer understanding of potential risks is low. Natural remedies are often perceived as being safe, and consumers are not always aware that products may be contaminated by poor manufacturing practices or may cause side effects in interaction with other herbs or drugs. Editors of Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects, Second Edition (CRC Press 2011), Sissi Wachtel-Galor and Iris F. F. Benzie say that “those using herbal medicines should be assured that the products they are buying are safe and contain what they are supposed to.”

“Consumers should also be given science-based information on dosage, contraindications, and efficacy.” —Sissi Wachtel-Galor and Iris F. F. Benzie According to a WHO report, a 2001 survey shows that 57 countries require traditional medicines to meet the same safety assessment requirements as for conventional pharmaceuticals, while 82 have separate requirements. For manufacturing, 73 countries follow the same rules as for conventional pharmaceuticals, while 28 countries have no requirements. Sold variously as over-the-counter medicine, dietary supplements, or by other names, the regulation and registration differs from one country to another.

Seaweed… The Fountain of Youth? Walk into any beauty supply store and you’ll notice products that claim to reduce wrinkles, fade sun spots, thicken hair… the list goes on. But consumers are increasingly demanding cosmetic products that contain more natural components while providing the benefits of synthetic ingredients. In the past several years, marine-derived cosmeceuticals such as chitosan have begun to offer alternatives to existing cosmeceuticals. Researchers have explored marine fish and sponge-derived collagens as effective skin treatment agents in anti-aging formulations. Marine bacteria, including Planococcus maitriensis Anita I and halophilic bacteria, produce bioactive compounds that have proven useful for UV and membrane protection.

One attempt to standardize information about herbal medicinal products on a wider scale is European Union (EU) directive 2004/24/EC, which came into effect April 30 of this year. It allows traditional herbal medicines to be registered without tests and clinical trials but requires documentation showing that the product is not harmful in specified conditions of use—and that it has a history of safe use for 30 years.

In Marine Cosmeceuticals: Trends and Prospects (CRC Press, November 2011), contributors from around the globe present research in this rapidly growing field, highlighting the potential of marine micro and macro flora and fauna as effective agents for the development of novel cosmeceuticals. The book examines their biological and chemical properties as well as industrial applications.

With this directive, Paola Testori Coggi, Director-General for Health and Consumers, says that consumers in the EU can be assured that the herbal medicine they buy “will be safe, will be of good quality, will give you the beneficial effects which they claim for, and they will be legal” (source: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/information_sources/herbal_medicines_en.htm).

Carefully dissecting the hype from solid science, Herbal Principles in Cosmetics: Properties and Mechanisms of Action (CRC Press, 2010) critically examines the botanical, ethnopharmacological, phytochemical, and

story continued on pg. 7 (Research needed )

story continued on pg. 7 (Seaweed)

Summer 2011

NATURALPRODUCTS 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Pharmacognosy 30 July -3 Aug, San Diego, California John Blunt & Murray Munro, authors of Dictionary of Marine Natural Products with CD-ROM, will be speaking.*

43rd IUPAC World Chemistry Conference 30 July – 2 Aug. 2011 San Juan, Puerto Rico. *

American Society of Plant Biologists Plant Biology 2011 6-10 August, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Royal Pharmaceutical Society Conference 2011 11 – 12 Sept. 2011, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

American Society for Horticulture Science Annual Conference 25-28 Sept. 2011, Waikoloa, Hawaii

Phytochemicals in Nutrition and Health (PSE) 27-30 Sept. 2011, Bari, Italy

The 3rd International Conference of Bioinformatics, Natural Products and Traditional Medicine 14-16 Oct. 2011, Xi'an, China

7th European Conference on Marine Natural Products

5th International Conference on Polyphenols and Health

14th - 18th August 2011, Strömstad, Sweden John Blunt & Murray Munro, authors of Dictionary of Marine Natural Products with CD-ROM, will be speaking.

17-20 Oct. 2011, Barcelona, Spain

ACS Fall 2011 National Meeting & Exposition Aug. 28 – Sept. 1, 2011, Denver, Colorado. *

ESF-COST High-Level Research Conference on Natural Products Chemistry, Biology and Medicine IV Aug. 28 – Sept. 2, 2011, Acquafredda di Maratea (near Naples), Italy, Europe

59th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research 4-9 September, Antalya, Turkey Gerhard Buchbauer, co-author of Handbook of Essential Oils: Science, Technology, and Applications, will be speaking. *

Third Brazilian Conference on Natural Products Oct. 30 - Nov. 2, 2011 David Kingston, co-editor of Anticancer Agents from Natural Products, Second Edition, will be presenting.

The International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades 6th - 10th Nov. 2011, Barcelona, Spain

Asian Federation for Pharmaceutical Science (AFPS) 2011 9-12 Dec. 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Phytochemical Society of North America 10-15 Dec. 2011, Kohala Coast, Hawaii John Blunt & Murray Munro Dictionary of Marine Natural Products with CD-ROM will be speaking. *Visit our booth at this show.

CALENDAR Supplements and Nutraceuticals Come of Age – What’s the Next Step? The nutraceutical market is at a crossroads. With a projected nearly $200 billion market for nutraceuticals by end of 2013, and promising developments in product design and discovery, the industry must be ready for intense scrutiny. Although nutraceuticals can no longer honestly be considered “alternative,” due in part to an absence of universally accepted standardization methods, nutraceuticals and functional foods face regulatory ignorance, marketing incompetence, and ethical impunity. Even though many researchers believe there is a connection between nutraceuticals and health, the credibility and quality control challenge remains. The industry needs more standardized testing, reliable reproducible clinical studies to prove the efficacies of products in vivo and in-process controls to maintain universal product quality. Written by a team of top-tier researchers and scientists from around the world, Biotechnology in Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals brings you up to speed on cutting-edge research advances. Equally vital, the Handbook of Nutraceuticals, Volume 1: Ingredients, Formulations, and Applications lists information on many ingredients used in nutraceuticals, describes their formulations and applications, and includes contributions from experts with pharmaceutical backgrounds. The Handbook of Nutraceuticals, Volume 2: Scale-Up, Processing and Automation focuses on the scale up, processing, and automation of nutraceutical production under cGMP production regulations. These books offer insight into nutraceutical ingredients, technology, processing, and manufacturing. They cover the characterization of nutraceuticals’ physicochemical, analytical, pharmacological, and pharmacokinetic classification information on regulatory requirements. Interest in new products for increased health and longevity will continue to grow, giving dietary supplements an increasing amount of cupboard space in most households. With quality of content unsurpassed by many resources, this collection discusses the characterization processes for nutraceuticals and explores how those proven techniques may be applied to the development and manufacture of nutraceutical products.

NATURALPRODUCTS

INSIGHTS

From the Editor of The Dictionary of Natural Products

Dictionary of Natural Products — Twenty Years and Counting John Buckingham

Dictionary of Natural Products (DNP) is now the world’s leading edited information resource for natural products. June 2011 will mark the 20th anniversary of its first release. Therefore, this is an appropriate time to review how it came about and what has been achieved over this period.

istry (Dictionary of Organometallic Compounds, 1984; Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds, 1992). At the same time, the organic part of the database was greatly expanded to produce some major near-comprehensive specialist dictionaries, for example Dictionary of Antibiotics (1988), Dictionary of Alkaloids (1989), and Dictionary of Drugs (1990).

The history of the dataset on which DNP is based goes back to the 1930s. At that time, a number of British chemists led by Professor Ian Heilbron of the University of Manchester felt the need for a compilation of chemical properties and bibliography to complement Beilstein, the only reference available at that time. Although comprehensive and authoritative, Beilstein had some major drawbacks: it was many years out of date, not particularly intuitive to use, and did not cover natural products of unknown structure or those which had not yet been synthesised. After several years’ compilation, the result of the Heilbron team’s efforts was the first edition of the Dictionary of Organic Compounds, in 1934. Further editions followed, but as the pace of chemical research accelerated during the 1960s and 1970s, it was increasingly difficult to keep pace with the amount of new information being published.

At the same time, it was realized that the database, originally estab-

Fortunately, some far-reaching technical developments in informatics were coming to the rescue. Beginning in the late 1970s, the publishers of DOC began work on establishing an electronic database from which to produce a new edition of DOC. In the field of chemistry, only Chemical Abstracts was into database technology in a big way. The need to produce a fully formatted printed dictionary as close as possible in appearance to the earlier hot-metal editions of DOC was a demanding requirement that was successfully met with the publication of the fifth edition (DOC5) in late 1982. With the establishment of a database that could be rapidly and continuously updated, the way was open not only to compile and publish a further series of printed dictionaries, but eventually to publish the information electronically. In the 1980s, however, it was by no means clear in what direction the market for electronic data was going or how this information should be made available. For the time being, printed dictionaries continued to be the medium of choice. The database was expanded into organometallic and inorganic chem-

By the 1990s, CD-ROM was the preferred distribution medium, although it was also clear that in the longer term, users were going to want access to their information online. lished to produce DOC, had expanded to the point at which it was doing two things at once — a rapid but easy-to-use and authoritative lookup for a central subset of chemical substances (DOC, DOMC, DIC, etc.) and a near-comprehensive resource on natural products. The first major project from this new era was the 8-volume Dictionary of Natural Products (1993), updated at first with print supplements and then purely in electronic form. DNP has gone from strength to strength in its coverage and has nearly doubled in size — from 139,000 natural products in 1993 to over 238,000 with the upcoming release in June 2011 — and is now available on DVD. Released every six months, each DVD and online version contains the results of the previous period’s updating, carried out by an experienced team of expert chemists. Some updates may simply consist of the addition of a new synthesis reference, but each time an update is made, the entry is examined and is subject to a full review. At the same time, specialized review projects are carried out, leading to a new generation of specialist dictionaries, such as the greatly updated Dictionary of Alkaloids, Second Edition with DVD (2010). Our current project is a greatly revised edition of the Dictionary of Antibiotics, due to appear in late 2012. As natural product research continues to thrive, Dictionary of Natural Products will continue to keep pace and meet researchers’ needs around the world.

NATURALPRODUCTS

Extracting Current Trend

Recently Published and Upcoming Titles Marine Cosmeceuticals Trends and Prospects

Herbalism, Phytochemistry and Ethnopharmacology

Edited by

Se-Kwon Kim

A. Singh

Pukyong National University, Busan, South Korea

Herbal Consultant, Punjab, India

Catalog no. K12759, November 2011, c. 448 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-6028-1, $169.95 / £108.00

Catalog no. N10319, April 2011, 280 pp. ISBN: 978-1-57808-697-9, $119.95 / £76.99

Anticancer Agents from Natural Products

American Herbal Pharmacopoeia

Second Edition Gordon M. Cragg

Botanical Pharmacognosy Microscopic Characterization of Botanical Medicines

National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland, USA

Edited by

David G. I. Kingston

Roy Upton

Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, USA

American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, Scotts Valley, California, USA

David J. Newman

Alison Graff

National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland, USA

BIO-Logic, Inc., Montrose, Colorado, USA

Catalog no. K10713, October 2011, c. 766 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-1382-9, $189.95 / £121.00

Georgina Jolliffe

Edited by

Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources Second Edition, Natural Products as Lead Compounds in Drug Discovery

London University, UK, (retired)

Reinhard Länger AGES PharmMed, Vienna, Austria

Elizabeth Williamson University of Reading, UK

Citrus Oils Composition, Advanced Analytical Techniques, Contaminants, and Biological Activity Edited by

Giovanni Dugo University of Messina, Canzini, Italy

Luigi Mondello University of Messina, Canzini, Italy

Catalog no. 73265, March 2011, 800 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4200-7326-3, $169.95 / £108.00

Catalog no. K10034, January 2011, 586 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-0028-7, $149.95 / £95.00

University of Catania, Italy

Ethnomedicinal Plants Revitalizing of Traditional Knowledge of Herbs

Vanilla

Catalog no. K11166, October 2011, c. 648 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-2229-6, $189.95 / £121.00

Edited by

Corrado Tringali

Edited by

Eric Odoux

Edited by

Herbal Medicines

CIRAD-Sersyst, Montpellier Cedex, France

M.K. Rai SGB Amravati University, India

Michel Grisoni

Development and Validation of Plant-derived Medicines for Human Health

D. Acharya SGB Amravati University, India

Edited by

Jose Luis Rios

Giacinto Bagetta

Universitat de Valencia, Spain

University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy

Catalog no. N10320, February 2011, 480 pp. ISBN: 978-1-57808-696-2, $129.95 / £82.00

Marco Cosentino University of Insubria, Varese, Italy

Marie Tiziana Corasaniti University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Italy

Shinobu Sakurada Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, Sendai, Japan

Catalog no. K11713, September 2011, c. 516 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-3768-9, $139.95 / £82.00

Introduction to Natural Products Chemistry Edited by

Rensheng Xu, Yang Ye, and Weimin Zhao Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Pudong, China

High Performance Liquid Chromatography in Phytochemical Analysis

CIRAD, Saint Pierre, La Réunion, France

Catalog no. 83376, January 2011, 420 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4200-8337-8, $119.95 / £76.99

Sesame The genus Sesamum Edited by

Dorothea Bedigian Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, USA

Catalog no. 3538, January 2011, 556 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8493-3538-9, $129.95 / £82.00

Edited by

Figs

Monika Waksmundzka-Hajnos

The Genus Ficus

Medical University of Lublin, Poland

Ephraim Philip Lansky

Joseph Sherma

Rimonest Ltd., Haifa, Israel

Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, USA

Helena Maaria Paavilainen

Catalog no. 9260X, January 2011, 995 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4200-9260-8, $239.95 / £152.00

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Catalog no. 89668, January 2011, 415 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4200-8966-0, $119.95 / £76.99

Catalog no. K12793, July 2011, 384 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-6076-2, $89.95 / £57.99

Order online at www.crcpress.com

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NATURALPRODUCTS

ds from Natural Sources

Call for Authors and Contributors Widespread use of herbal medicines in developing countries and their resurgence in industrialized nations have raised significant concerns about quality, safety, and clinical efficacy. Pharmacognosy plays a critical role in ensuring the authenticity, purity, and consistency of the materials used in these types of medicines. The Clinical Pharmacognosy Series addresses the cross-fertilization of classical pharmacognosy with modern chemical and biological approaches, along with their applications in clinical settings. Specific topics covered will include randomized controlled trials, toxicology, mechanisms of action, identification of active chemical constituents, metabolism characterization, bioavailability, and pharmacokinetics of active constituents.

Chemistry of Natural Products A Unified Approach, Second Edition

Responding to the need for modern approaches to pharmacognosy, Series Editor Navindra P. Seeram is calling for authors, editor, and contributors in these areas:

N.R. Krishnaswamy Catalog no. K12250, January 2011, 432 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-4965-1, $89.95 / £57.99

• Women’s health

• Neurodegenerative diseases

• Infectious diseases

• Moods and anxiety disorders

Carotenoids

• Obesity

• Asthma and immunology

Physical, Chemical, and Biological Functions and Properties

• Cancer

• Aging

• Cardiovascular diseases

• Addiction

• Diabetes

• Herb-drug interactions

Edited by

John T. Landrum

• Osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis

Florida International University, Miami, USA

Catalog no. 52306, 2010, 568 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4200-5230-5, $195.95 / £125.00

Send all queries to the Series Editor or Acquisitions Editor:

Drugs of Natural Origin

Series Editor Navindra P. Seeram, Ph.D. University of Rhode Island E-mail: nseeram@mail.uri.edu Tel: 401-874-9367

A Treatise of Pharmacognosy, Sixth Revised Edition Gunnar Samuelsson Uppsala University, Sweden (retired)

Lars Bohlin

Acquisitions Editor Hilary Rowe CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group E-mail: hilary.rowe@taylorandfrancis.com Tel: 858-436-5501

Uppsala University, Sweden

Catalog no. N10257, 2010, 776 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-3857-0, $149.95 / £95.00

Ethnoveterinary Botanical Medicine Herbal Medicines for Animal Health Edited by

David R. Katerere PROMEC Unit, Cape Town, South Africa

Dibungi Luseba Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa

Catalog no. 45601, 2010, 450 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4200-4560-4, $139.95 / £89.00

Herbal Principles in Cosmetics

Lignin and Lignans

Properties and Mechanisms of Action

Advances in Chemistry

Bruno Burlando

Edited by

Universita Del Piemonte Orientale, Italy

Cyril Heitner

Luisella Verotta University of Milan, Italy

Retired from Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (now FPInnovations), Pointe-Claire, Quebec

Laura Cornara

Don Dimmel

Universita di Genova, Italy

Retired from Institute of Paper Science and Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Elisa Bottini-Massa Helan Cosmesi, Italy

John Schmidt

Catalog no. K10611, 2010, 460 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4398-1213-6, $149.95 / £95.00

FPInnovations, Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada

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Catalog no. DK3286, 2010, 683 pp. ISBN: 978-1-57444-486-5, $169.95 / £108.00

NATURALPRODUCTS PARTNERS in PUBLISHING Chemistry Arena from Taylor & Francis and CRC Press In honor of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry, Taylor & Francis Group/CRC Press launched the Chemistry Arena website at www.chemistryarena.com in January 2011. The web site provides access to all things chemistry — from high-quality journal reviews and cutting-edge articles to news, conference listings, and interviews with journal editors, book authors and editors, and experts. Fans of CRC Press Chemistry Books on Facebook can keep up-to-date with CRC Press as well as events related to the International Year of Chemistry. They can also sign up for email promotions that will occur throughout the year at www.crcpress.com.

Taylor & Francis Journals – Online and In Print For more than two centuries, Taylor & Francis has been a leading provider of quality journals. Continuing to reflect and shape modern thought, the examples below are just a few of the 1000 journals available from Taylor & Francis – Informa. Edited by Armandodoriano Bianco, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" Italy, Natural Products Research covers all aspects of research in the chemistry and biochemistry of naturally occurring compounds, including work on natural substances of land and sea and of plants, microbes, and animals. The editor welcomes discussions of structure elucidation, synthesis, and experimental biosynthesis of natural products as well as developments of methods in these areas. Natural Product Research issues will be subtitled either "Part A - Synthesis and Structure" or "Part B - Bioactive Natural Products". Edited by De-Quan Yu, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the chemistry-oriented Journal of Asian Natural Products Research (JANPR) publishes the work of scientists in Asian countries, e.g. China, Japan, Korea, and India as well from other countries on natural products of Asia. Major fields covered are isolation and structural elucidation of natural constituents (including those for nonmedical uses), synthesis and transformation (including biosynthesis and biotransformation) of natural products, pharmacognosy, and allied topics.

“The essence of all beings is Earth. The essence of the Earth is water. The essence of water is plants. The essence of plants is the human being…” —Chandogya Upanishad Hindu scripture maintains that humans are the essence of plants. In India, certain plants are thought to be holy, treated with adoration and sympathy, and almost considered members of the family. And according to Native American Iroquois mythology, the earth’s creator patterned the natural features and characteristics of plants after those of humans. Science confirms the ancient assertion that people and plants share a mysterious elemental interconnection and reciprocal relationship — one that presents an abundance of benefits, many of which remain untapped. In collaboration with CRC Press, the American Herbal Society (AHP) introduces the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia: Botanical Pharmacognosy - Microscopic Characterization of Botanical Medicines. Designed to foster an increasingly complete understanding and optimized application of botanicals, this resource counters the lack of authoritative microscopic descriptions for medicinal plant species used around the globe. Among other features, it includes an atlas with detailed text and graphic documentation for the more than 140 medicinal plant species and their adulterants. This powerful reference covers plant anatomy to facilitate pharmacognostic analysis of plant tissue. An in-depth overview of the history and importance of botanical microscopy, this reference offers instruction on how to set up a microscopy lab and then prepare, view, and archive whole and powdered plant parts for microscopic analysis. This book focuses on the most commonly used — and adulterated — botanicals in the United States. It also covers numerous popular Asian botanicals, providing the first English language description for many. It is a valuable tool to extend and enhance human use of plants. Editor Roy Upton has been working and practicing professionally as an herbalist since 1981. Trained in Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Western herbal medicine traditions Dr. Upton is the founder, executive director, and editor of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia.

NATURALPRODUCTS

PIONEERS

Cancer Research Pioneers Extract All They Can from the New Era of Drug Discovery Technical challenges and funding problems continue to hinder the intricate process of natural products-based drug discovery. Renowned researcher David Kingston says that one major problem is that the synthesis of high-throughput screening (HTS) and combinatorial chemistry has not been the instant panacea it was expected to be. Scientists also face resupply problems (i.e., non-sustainable harvesting), legal demands of international policy on research and sample collection, and new financial pressures and research responsibilities resulting from Big Pharma’s plant closures and job and program cuts in the face of a global recession. “This lack of productivity is, in part, responsible for the decline in the development of new drugs, with only 20 approved in the USA in 2007, down from an average of about 40 a year from 1981 to 2005,” says Kingston, a distinguished chemistry professor at Virginia Tech and past president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy. Collaborating with David Newman — the chief of the Natural Products Branch (NPB) in the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the National Cancer Institute — and Newman’s esteemed predecessor, Gordon Cragg, Dr. Kingston has edited Anticancer Agents from Natural Products, Second Edition, scheduled to publish late this year. Kingston — who received his BA and Ph.D from Cambridge University and was a Fulbright Scholar at MIT — recently discussed his work and the focus of the book with Natural Products News.

What key contribution does your book make to the natural product drugs? It deals with clinically used anticancer agents from natural products, and [details] discovery, development, and clinical use of some 25 natural products and derivatives in use as anticancer drugs. As such, it provides strong scientific justification for the importance of natural products as anticancer drug leads and, by implication, as leads for drugs for other diseases.

What is the role of pharmacognosy in searching for new drugs? [It] is crucial to natural products drug discovery, [which] requires input from at least three scientific disciplines. The first requirement is for a source of crude natural product extracts. These can be of microbial origin, marine origin, or plant origin. So a microbiologist, a marine scientist, or a botanist are needed for this phase of the work. The second requirement is for a biologist to test the crude source materials for some sort of bioactivity, and then to work with the natural products chemist (or pharmacognosist) to follow the subsequent purification of bioactive compounds from the crude extracts. Once a pure active compound is isolated, it needs to be evaluated with additional bioassays, and it might need to be synthesized to make it available for development. So natural products drug discovery is a very collaborative effort!

Research needed (continued from pg. 1)

Seaweed (continued from pg. 1)

To provide that reassurance to consumers, there is a huge need for research. At the same time, research and development efforts in herbal medicinal products face a host of challenges, from a lack of regulations and funding to difficulties in measuring the synergistic effects of multiple active constituents.

molecular aspects of botanical active ingredients used in cosmetics. Experts in cell physiology, phytochemistry, ethnopharmacology, applied botany, ethnobotany, and cosmetic science explore therapeutic properties, specific action and dermatologic properties, and toxicities.

The first book in CRC Press’ new Clinical Pharmacognosy Series, Herbal Medicines: Development and Validation of Plant-derived Medicines for Human Health (September 2011) explores many of these challenges in the development of efficacious medicinal herbal products. Edited by Giacinto Bagetta, Marco Cosentino, Marie Tiziana Corasaniti, and Shinobu Sakurada, the book takes a rational approach to topics ranging from cultivation of plants to the use of zebrafish bioassays in natural product discovery to the reporting of adverse reactions.

With the marketplace clamoring for the latest organic “youthrestoring” creams, the popularity of cosmeceuticals and naturalbased cosmetics has never been higher. With this surge in popularity comes increased focus on the ingredients and techniques involved in producing these products. As Giovanni Appendino says in the foreword of Herbal Principles in Cosmetics, “Beauty might be only skin deep, but its science should not be.”

NATURALPRODUCTS Novel Approaches to the Isolation of Potentially Life-Saving Bioactive Natural Products Low toxicity, availability from renewable sources, complete biodegradability, and in most cases, low costs, make bioactive compounds an attractive area of research for scientists looking for new pharmaceutical leads, and although the majority of new chemical entities registered by the FDA are derived from nature, most of the Earth’s living species remain untested for bioactivity. With its focus on cutting-edge approaches to the isolation of biologically active natural products, Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources: Natural Products as Lead Compounds in Drug Discovery, Second Edition (CRC Press 2011) examines natural products that show promise against a wide range of pathologies. The book presents novel strategies for performing a sustainable search for bioactive natural products as potential leads in drug development and for revealing new targets in pathological organisms in nature. Anticancer Agents from Natural Products, Second Edition (CRC Press 2011) explores the applications of synthetic and medicinal chemistry to the preparation of analogs with enhanced activities, highlighting the potential of drug discovery through the use of genome mining. For each class of compounds, the text provides information on the history, structure, mechanism of action, development, synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and clinical applications. At the Scripps Research Center in Jupiter, Florida, scientists have isolated and synthesized painkilling compound conolidine found in the flowering plant Crepe Jasmine (Tabermontana divaricata). Used to treat inflammation, toothaches, and other ailments such as cancer in China, Thailand, and India, this naturally occurring compound seems to be as potent as morphine (the first drug developed from a plant source) without the side effects of nausea, constipation, and addiction. Although it is a long journey from drug discovery to drug development and clinical trials, this is a prime example of the virtually limitless opportunities that bioactive products present to improve and save lives.

NEXUS

Super-Food or Marketing Hype? The açai berry (Euterpe oleracea C. Mart.) has rapidly become popular in Western countries as the “King of the Antioxidants.” Proponents claim it can bolster the immune system, cleanse the colon, assist digestion, lower bad cholesterol, and contribute to heart health. Purveyors also insist it can increase energy and sexual performance, reduce wrinkles, slow aging, facilitate sleep, and promote weight loss. The basis behind these lofty promises lies in the fact that the açai berry contains high levels of anthocyanins and flavonoids, powerful antioxidants that can neutralize the free radicals that cause heart disease, cancer, and other ailments and conditions. But are açai berries the best choice? Cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries also contain these antioxidants and are often less expensive. Yet with aggressive marketing, suppliers of açai products have turned in record profits. Award-winning author Ernest Small profiles the açai berry and other plants of interest in Top 100 Exotic Food Plants, soon to be released by CRC Press. Here is just a sampling of currently popular plants presented in this book and touted in some circles as having medicinal qualities. Called “fever grass” in southern India and Ceylon, lemongrass is used to combat malaria in Southeast Asia and western Africa. It is also a popular choice in Guatemalan folk medicine to treat fever, flu, and low blood pressure. In Brazil, the leaves have been used in tea for the treatment of nervous and gastrointestinal disturbances. Turmeric is a popular item in the medicine cabinets of many alternative medicine enthusiasts. One study cited in Dr. Small’s book reports that in mice, turmeric has been known to alleviate cystic fibrosis. Other studies suggest it might be of value in treating inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, alcohol-related liver disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Kava bars have sprouted up across the U.S., promising a safe “high.” But as Dr. Small indicates, it may be a risky choice, as recent reports link kava use to liver toxicity, including hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver failure. Profiling exotic food plants popular worldwide, this volume separates the facts from the hype, presenting an even-handed look at a range of plants and the health claims made about them. Filled with fun facts and historical information, it offers dozens of entries that are both succinct and enlightening.

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