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| The Question of Standardization |
| The belief that the medical effect of an herblike that of a pharmaceutical drugis due to a single active ingredient is a common misconception. This notion is responsible for a move to standardize commercially sold herbs to the so-called active ingredient, making them more like drugs. I regard this trend with apprehension. We need to respect and honor each herb as perfect in its own fight; separating its constituents can create problems. |
| For example, many people today are using the herb St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) as a natural remedy for depression. Most over-the-counter varieties of this product are standardized to the hypericin content but, as recent information on this sacred plant indicates, hypericin is not the ingredient responsible for its antidepressant effects. St. John's wort has many constituents, including a number of flavonoids, that together with hypericin have a powerful healing effect. We should never overlook the possibility that when we standardize an herb for an active ingredient, we may remove the other beneficial ingredientsones that may, in fact, enhance the effectiveness of the active ingredient or reduce the potential side effects of the active ingredient when taken alone. |
| While many pharmaceutical companies today are taking an interest in the healing power of herbs, some focus only on isolating their bioactive substances. By making molecular modifications to an herb's bioactive substance, they can produce synthetic products that can become proprietary or exclusive in terms of parenting. |
| These products have both benefits and drawbacks. On the plus side, some of the most effective cancer-fighting drugs have been developed from isolate components of herbs. For example, the vinca alkaloids, vinblastine and vincristine, two of the most widely used antineoplastic agents, come from the herb periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). Vinblastine is used mostly for Hodgkin's disease, germ-cell cancers of the testis, and nonsmall-cell lung cancer. Vincristine is used for acute leukemia in children and adults, and has played an important role in combination therapies for Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Ewing's sarcoma, neuroblastoma, multiple myeloma, and breast cancer. |
| Using plant-derived drugs such as the vinca alkaloids is the most aggressive way to treat a person with cancer, and the good news is that it can work well against fast-growing cancers. The bad news is that this is not always the |
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