Kings College study breaks down 350 herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine and predicts their activities covering 41 therapeutic areas in Western medicine.
Chem-TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) breaks down 350 herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. The digital database relates traditional Chinese herbal medicine to Western pharmaceutical counterparts on the molecular level.
Parkinson’s Disease, HIV/AIDS and cancer treatments could benefit from the ethnopharmacological study which took place at King’s College in London. The study combined research and computational chemistry. The resulting data base includes both botanical and chemical information. Chem-TCM says: “Ethnopharmacological data could play an important role in pharmaceutical prospecting from Chinese herbs as well as identifying links between Chinese and Western medicine.”
The study predicted activities for each molecular record covering 41 therapeutically significant targets in Western medicine. Some of the more familiar areas of interest are:
- Dopamine receptors which are of concern in managing Parkinson’s Disease and schizophrenia.
- HIV-1 protease which is targeted in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
- Estrogen receptors and estrogen aromatase which are involved in liver function, as well as breast and uterine cancer.
Categories: Alternative Medicine, China, Health, Hong Kong, Medicine