Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) are rapidly gaining attention in the West as sources of new drugs, dietary supplements and functional foods. However, lack of consistent manufacturing practices and quality standards, fear of adulteration, and perceived deficiencies in scientific validation of efficacy and safety impede worldwide acceptance of TCM. In addition, Western pharmaceutical industries and regulatory agencies are partial toward single ingredient drugs based on synthetic molecules, and skeptical of natural product mixtures. This review concentrates on three examples of TCM-derived pharmaceuticals and functional foods that have, despite these usual obstacles, risen to wide acceptance in the West based on their remarkable performance in recent scientific investigations. They are: Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), the source of artemisinin, which is the currently preferred single compound anti-malarial drug widely used in combination therapies and recently approved by US FDA; Thunder god vine (Tripterygium wilfordii) which is being developed as a botanical drug for rheumatoid arthritis; and green tea (Camellia sinensis) which is used as a functional beverage and a component of dietary supplements.

Aim of the study The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize the active constituents of the traditionally used antimalarial plant Liriodendron tulipifera by antiplasmodial-assay guided fractionation. Materials and methods Bark and leaves were extracted with solvents of increasing polarity. Fractions were generated using flash chromatography, counter current chromatography and preparative HPLC and subjected to in vitro antiplasmodial and cytotoxicity assays. Active fractions were subjected to further fractionation until pure compounds were isolated, for which the IC50 values were calculated. Results and discussion Six known aporphine alkaloids, asimilobine (1), norushinsunine (2), norglaucine (3), liriodenine (4), anonaine (5) and oxoglaucine (6) were found to be responsible for the antiplasmodial activity of the bark. Leaves yielded two known sesquiterpene lactones, peroxyferolide (7) and lipiferolide (8) with antiplasmodial activity. The antiplasmodial activity of (2) (IC50 = 29.6 μg/ml), (3) (IC50 = 22.0 μg/ml), (6) (IC50= 9.1 μg/mL), (7) (IC50 = 6.2 μg/ml) and (8) (IC50 = 1.8 μg/ml) are reported for the first time. Conclusion This work supports the historical use of Liriodendron tulipifera as an antimalarial remedy of the United States and characterizes its antiplasmodial constituents.

BackgroundOver 1200 plant species are reported in ethnobotanical studies for the treatment of malaria and fevers, so it is important to prioritize plants for further development of anti-malarials.MethodsThe “RITAM score” was designed to combine information from systematic literature searches of published ethnobotanical studies and laboratory pharmacological studies of efficacy and safety, in order to prioritize plants for further research. It was evaluated by correlating it with the results of clinical trials.Results and discussionThe laboratory efficacy score correlated with clinical parasite clearance (rs=0.7). The ethnobotanical component correlated weakly with clinical symptom clearance but not with parasite clearance. The safety component was difficult to validate as all plants entering clinical trials were generally considered safe, so there was no clinical data on toxic plants.ConclusionThe RITAM score (especially the efficacy and safety components) can be used as part of the selection process for prioritising plants for further research as anti-malarial drug candidates. The validation in this study was limited by the very small number of available clinical studies, and the heterogeneity of patients included.

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This study presented the bioassay-guided fractionation with the leishmanicidal and cytotoxicity activities of two compounds isolated for the first time from an Eryngium species.