[Herbal medicines alternative to synthetical medicines].

Herbal pharmaceuticals in medical practice are similarly used as chemically well defined drugs. Like other synthetical drugs, they are subject to pharmaceutical legislature (AMG) and EU directives. It is to differentiate between phytopharmaceuticals with effectiveness of proven indications and traditional registered herbal medicine.

Traditional Use and Current Status of Phytotherapy in Pediatrics.

Phytotherapy offers a favorable benefit-risk quotient, which when combined with other factors, makes it eminently suitable for pediatrics. Approximately 14 indications for external application and 30 for internal use of phytotherapy discussed in the handbook carefully outline potential usefulness and limits and take into account the clinical experience of several pediatricians.

[Is there a rational therapy for symptomatic treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia with phytogenic drugs? Illustrated with the example of the prostate agent from Serenoa repens (Sabal fructus)].

In summary, even when the scientific findings are subjected to a stringently critical evaluation, it must be concluded that the denigration of herbal prostate drugs to mere placebos, as occasionally occurs, is not scientifically tenable. This is especially true of the lipophilic extract of Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens fruits) in a daily dose of 320 mg extract. All in all, far more experimental and clinical studies have been conducted with herbal prostate drugs than with "fashionable" drugs, such as alpha 1-receptor antagonists and finasteride, since with the latter only studies of recent design are available.

Antispasmodic and relaxant activity of chelidonine, protopine, coptisine, and Chelidonium majus extracts on isolated guinea-pig ileum.

Two ethanolic dry extracts from the herb Chelidonium majus L. with a defined content of the main alkaloids (chelidonine, protopine, and coptisisine) and the alkaloids themselves were studied in three different antispasmodic test models on isolated ileum of guinea-pigs. In the BaCl2-stimulated ileum, chelidonine and protopine exhibited the known papaverine-like musculotropic action, whereas coptisine (up to 3.

[The potential nephrotoxic effects of essential juniper oil].

The nephrotoxicity of juniper oil (CAS 73049-62-4), a phytomedicine with diuretic resp. aquaretic activity, was evaluated in male Sprague-Dawley rats after oral administration. Two chemically slightly different oil batches were tested for 28 days with 100, 333 or 1000 mg (series 1, batch 1) resp.

Electron microscopic and microcalorimetric investigations of the possible mechanism of the antibacterial action of a defined propolis provenance.

Microcalorimetric and electron microscopic studies on the mode of the antibacterial action of propolis were performed on Streptococcus agalactiae. It was shown that propolis inhibits bacterial growth by preventing cell division, thus resulting in the formation of pseudo-multicellular streptococci. In addition, propolis disorganized the cytoplasm, the cytoplasmic membrane, and the cell wall, caused a partial bacteriolysis, and inhibited protein synthesis.