Good practice in reviewing and publishing studies on herbal medicine, with special emphasis on traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese materia medica. (57/79)

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Effects of Chinese Materia Medica-Fubao Danggui Jiao on experimental endometriosis. (58/79)

The objective of this paper was to investigate the effects of a Chinese Materia Medica variant -Fubao Danggui Jiao (FDJ)-on experimental endometriosis. An endometriosis model was created by virtue of auto-transplantation of endometrial tissue onto rats' abdominal walls. The implants were allowed to grow for 30 days until the successful completion of the model. After that, forty endometriotic rats were randomly divided into four study groups and given different treatments: (1) negative control group (water, 2ml/kg, per os); (2) FDJ-A group (FDJ, 2ml/kg, per os); (3) FDJ-B group (FDJ, 4ml/kg, per os); (4) Danazol group (70mg/kg, per os). After 30 days with treatments, the volumes of endometriotic implants in each rat were measured. The implants and normal uterine horns were removed for routine histological examination. FDJ caused significant decreases in volumes of the surviving endometriotic implants, with two different doses having statistically equivalent effects. Upon histological examination, FDJ was observed to cause regression of epithelium and stroma of endometriotic implants. FDJ had revealed promising therapeutic effects on endometriosis.  (+info)

Phenotypic evidence of ultra-highly diluted homeopathic remedies acting at gene expression level: a novel probe on experimental phage infectivity in bacteria. (59/79)

OBJECTIVE: To explore if some ultra-highly diluted homeopathic remedies claimed to have antiviral effects can demonstrate any discernible action in the bacteria Escherichia coli through modulating infectivity potentials of the bacteriophage phiX174 DNA. METHODS: phiX174 was selected because of its known host specificity to E. coli and its constitutive expression of lytic gene E when inside the bacterial host. We deployed the "bacteriophage assay system" by "top layer agar plating" method of plaque-counting for evaluation of efficacy of the homeopathic remedies in rendering the bacteria's protective ability against the attack of phiX174. The plaque number in the agar-plated Petri dishes, either containing the phage-bacteria mixture subjected to one of the diluted homeopathic drugs under test (1% volume ratio; Belladonna 30C, Rhus Tox 30C, Arnica 30C) or the succussed 1% "alcoholic vehicle" of the drug was recorded. The plaques represented the bacterial colony actually infected and lysed by phiX174. Conversely, we subjected phiX174 to the homeopathic drug treatment before allowing them to interact with the bacteria to ascertain if the drug itself had any direct effect on the infective potential of the phage DNA entering into the bacterial cell. RESULTS: Each homeopathic remedy showed a significant decrease in plaque number on pretreated bacteria (1 h prior to infection) with respect to untreated and placebo-treated controls; there was only an insignificant change in the plaque number when phiX174 was pretreated with the drugs. As phiX174 starts lytic cycle when inside the bacterial cell, the loss of plaque number would mean that either the lytic gene E in many was repressed or the entire phage DNA was annihilated by the bacterial gene product (restriction enzymes) known to be regulated by a cluster of genes. CONCLUSION: This provides phenotypic evidence for the ability of ultra-highly diluted homeopathic remedies to regulate expression of certain gene(s) depending on need of the organism.  (+info)

Rapid green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from silver nitrate by a homeopathic mother tincture Phytolacca Decandra. (60/79)

OBJECTIVE: To examine if a homeopathic mother tincture (Phytolacca Decandra) is capable of precipitating silver nanoparticles from silver nitrate (AgNO(3)) and to characterize the biosynthesized nanoparticles for evaluating their biological activities. METHODS: A total of 100 mg of AgNO(3) was added to 20mL of Milli-Q water and stirred vigorously. Then 5mL of the homeopathic mother tincture of Phytolacca Decandra (ethanolic root extract of Phytolacca decandra) was added and stirred continuously. Reduction took place rapidly at 300K and completed in 10 min as shown by stable light greenish-yellow color of the solution which gave colloid of silver nanoparticles. The colloid solution was then centrifuged at 5000xg to separate the nanoparticles for further use. The nanoparticles were characterized by spectroscopic analysis, particle size analysis and zeta potential measurements, and morphology was analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The drug-DNA interaction was determined by circular dichroism spectrophotometry and melting temperature profiles by using calf thymus DNA as the target. The biological activities were determined using a cancer cell line A549 in vitro and using bacteria Escherichia coli and fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae as test models. RESULTS: Phytolacca Decandra precipitated silver nanoparticles in ambient conditions. The nanoparticles had 91 nm particle size, with polydispersity index of 0.119 and zeta potential of -15.6 mV. The silver nanoparticles showed anticancer and antibacterial properties, but no clear antifungal properties. CONCLUSION: This could be a novel environment-friendly method to biosynthesize silver nanoparticles using a cost-effective, nontoxic manner. The homeopathic mother tincture may utilize this property of nano-precipitation in curing diseases or disease symptoms.  (+info)

Multiweek resting EEG cordance change patterns from repeated olfactory activation with two constitutionally salient homeopathic remedies in healthy young adults. (61/79)

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A homeopathic remedy from arnica, marigold, St. John's wort and comfrey accelerates in vitro wound scratch closure of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts. (62/79)

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Nonlinear dynamical systems effects of homeopathic remedies on multiscale entropy and correlation dimension of slow wave sleep EEG in young adults with histories of coffee-induced insomnia. (63/79)

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Efficacy of a non-hormonal treatment, BRN-01, on menopausal hot flashes: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. (64/79)

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