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Revisiting the ancient concept of botanical therapeutics

Nature Chemical Biology volume 3, pages 360–366 (2007)Cite this article

Mixtures of interacting compounds produced by plants may provide important combination therapies that simultaneously affect multiple pharmacological targets and provide clinical efficacy beyond the reach of single compound–based drugs. Developing innovative scientific methods for discovery, validation, characterization and standardization of these multicomponent botanical therapeutics is essential to their acceptance into mainstream medicine.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Thundergod vine and its natural products.
Figure 3: A. dracunculus is being grown under strict environmental conditions for the production of medically active compounds being tested for antidiabetic activity.
Figure 4: Flowchart depicting the development paths for different categories of MCBTs in the United States.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. von Roy, B. Fridlender and T. Sox for critical review of this paper. Research supported by Phytomedics Inc.; National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Dietary Supplements Research on Botanicals and Metabolic Syndrome, grant no. 1-P50 AT002776-01; Fogarty International Center of the NIH under U01 TW006674 for the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups; and Rutgers University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Barbara M. Schmidt, David M. Ribnicky and Ilya Raskin are at Rutgers University, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Biotech Center, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA. raskin@AESOP.Rutgers.edu,

    Barbara M Schmidt, David M Ribnicky & Ilya Raskin

  2. Peter E. Lipsky is at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Autoimmunity Branch, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.,

    Peter E Lipsky

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Competing interests

I.R. has a financial interest in Phytomedics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, which partially supports research in I.R.'s laboratory.

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Schmidt, B., Ribnicky, D., Lipsky, P. et al. Revisiting the ancient concept of botanical therapeutics. Nat Chem Biol 3, 360–366 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0707-360

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