The "super drug" for the "super bug" is already with us it is called "Bacteriophage" as any first year biology student knows they are a virus that kills bacteria. The Russians and Eastern Bloc nations have done copious research and development in this area as the West went for the money and convenience of anti-biotics, all the while they used and abused them to encourage the development of these potential catastrophic super bugs. Shakespeare famous quote "kill all the lawyers" should have said, "Kill all the lawyers, and a some doctors too"
6
And Monsanto's Roundup maybe killing off just the plants we need, thinking of them as worthless weeds.
Time to treat nature as our teacher and friend, not an enemy to conquer.
Time to treat nature as our teacher and friend, not an enemy to conquer.
20
The headline for this article would have been much more accurate if the "Could" and "?" were eliminated. Why the doubtful headline?
3
Excellent article -- thank you!
7
My Peruvian wife was surprised at the article since in her country and the rest of South America herbal remedies are part of life. But they also use animal blood and other animal parts. Then there are other uses. Cut yourself? Take onion skin, wrap it around the cut, and the bleeding stops. There are creams that work three times faster and better than hydrocortisone at a hundredth what we pay for 0.5 oz. Really in trouble? You go to the Andes and the Quechua Indians. There are different tribes of original settlors spread in the continent and they have remedies. So the article is a repeat of what we've known for centuries: plants and animal parts treat even extreme diseases. An example: the compound used for post-breast cancer is made here from the bark of yew trees found in the Brazilian jungle.
17
At the same time that we are running out of antibiotics, our need for them is increasing as climate change fosters the return of ancient diseases long dormant under the permafrost. The irony here is that we are killling off species of plants as well as animals, plants whose properties we don't even know.
Keep driving those Hummers to burn fossil fuels as quickly as possible, keep buying exotic woods for your home, keep insisting on fracking that pollutes millions of gallons of the world's last fresh water supplies. After all, why stop now when we, ourselves, are dancing on the edge of environmental collapse? What we don't know can't hurt us, can it?
Keep driving those Hummers to burn fossil fuels as quickly as possible, keep buying exotic woods for your home, keep insisting on fracking that pollutes millions of gallons of the world's last fresh water supplies. After all, why stop now when we, ourselves, are dancing on the edge of environmental collapse? What we don't know can't hurt us, can it?
11
This amazing article, published by NY Times, falls in the category of "Beautiful" because it gives insight and disseminates information of the wellness of nature that can be to our reach if we truly wanted to.
Perhaps, as another vivid example to Dr. Quave investigations and findings in nature, could be the history, discoveries, and healings of Dr. Max Gerson -1881-1959. Including the US Senate Bill 1875, also referred as the Peper-Neely anticancer proposal. Gerson Institute is located in San Diego, and their clinic to heal cancer in Tijuana, Mexico.
Perhaps, as another vivid example to Dr. Quave investigations and findings in nature, could be the history, discoveries, and healings of Dr. Max Gerson -1881-1959. Including the US Senate Bill 1875, also referred as the Peper-Neely anticancer proposal. Gerson Institute is located in San Diego, and their clinic to heal cancer in Tijuana, Mexico.
6
This research is vitally important. When I was in pharmacy school it was called pharmacognosy--extracting medicinal substances from biological sources.
I hate to say it but we need Big Pharma on board with incentives to find new treatments. Or collaboration between Pharma and Government like the NIH
I also wonder if we could use CRISPR as a way of turning back the evolutionary clock making the bugs susceptible to older antibiotics again
I hate to say it but we need Big Pharma on board with incentives to find new treatments. Or collaboration between Pharma and Government like the NIH
I also wonder if we could use CRISPR as a way of turning back the evolutionary clock making the bugs susceptible to older antibiotics again
1
" .357 Magnum revolver strapped to her hip"
Oh no, in some quarters this observation invalidates everything she has discovered. If there were no firearms, alligators and rattlers wouldn't attack.
Oh no, in some quarters this observation invalidates everything she has discovered. If there were no firearms, alligators and rattlers wouldn't attack.
One of the preeminent authorities on the medicinal properties of what we call "weeds" is Susan Weed who has made their study and their cultivation her life's work. Anyone seriously interested in this article's subject owes it to themselves to look up her books, listen to her weekly radio call in, and examine the extensive curriculum of her Wise Woman University.
4
This could be a blessing for those of us who are allergic to antibiotics.
1
Blame (in the following order):
A) Regulators who were captured decades ago by big pharma, big chemical companies and big agriculture--leading to the routine prophylactic use of antibiotics in the livestock industry worldwide;
B) Doctors who allow themselves to take the easy road--giving in to patients who demand antibiotics for viral infections; and
C) the rest of us, for not doing more to stop all of these self-destructive practises.
A) Regulators who were captured decades ago by big pharma, big chemical companies and big agriculture--leading to the routine prophylactic use of antibiotics in the livestock industry worldwide;
B) Doctors who allow themselves to take the easy road--giving in to patients who demand antibiotics for viral infections; and
C) the rest of us, for not doing more to stop all of these self-destructive practises.
4
A perfect example of how one herb, Umckaloabo, in its prevention of pneumonia works in the manner described by Cassandra Quave, as a "…kind of antibiotic that can foil the evolution of resistance." There are also many, many other plant medicines like Uva Ursi with a long history of treating Urinary Tract Infections in a similar manner. Ferris Jabr has given us a timely and much needed article on the need for further research and inquiry into the use of these medicines in their whole and unadulterated forms. https://theasummerdeer.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/umckaloabo/
2
A few yrs ago I friend from the US requested help in securing a reservation at a Dead Sea resort that treats psoriasis. As the places were overbooked I turned to an Arab dermatologist here in Jerusalem, hoping that he could use his position to find an alternative resort along the Dead Sea. He replied that treating psoriasis is a very difficult condition to treat and suggested that I speak to a wealthy businessman nearby who could help. The businessman was reluctant to discuss the issue for fear I was from the health department, but he eventually told me that he had suffered the dermatological condition from childhood and tried every possible cure, including flying to specialists in EU for treatment with little, if any success.
By chance, he spoke with a local Bedouin who mentioned that the best possible cure was a concoction which they used on camels which was also effective for humans suffering from psoriasis. As a last resort, he tried the treatment which he claimed was the only treatment which actually was effective. The businessman gave me a short list of things to buy, olive oil, sulphur and lemons and to return in an hour or two. I returned and rushed the concoction to the airport as my friend was in dire need of a solution. A few days later I called the US to see how he was progressing with the new medicine, his wife told me he was hospitalized as his condition worsened. As for the Bedouin natural medicine, his Dermatologist threw it into the trash.
By chance, he spoke with a local Bedouin who mentioned that the best possible cure was a concoction which they used on camels which was also effective for humans suffering from psoriasis. As a last resort, he tried the treatment which he claimed was the only treatment which actually was effective. The businessman gave me a short list of things to buy, olive oil, sulphur and lemons and to return in an hour or two. I returned and rushed the concoction to the airport as my friend was in dire need of a solution. A few days later I called the US to see how he was progressing with the new medicine, his wife told me he was hospitalized as his condition worsened. As for the Bedouin natural medicine, his Dermatologist threw it into the trash.
4
I am from India..I am appalled by the ignorance shown by the author on Ayerveda. Please look into ancient Indian medicines they are entirely plant based and continued to be used by significant segment of Indians. It is a shame India is not taking the leadership.
11
There is a huge drawback of homegrown botanicals compared with factory pharmaceuticals. Botanicals can cure disease at fraction of a penny resulting in elimination of the billionaire class, which is not a problem if you are not a billionaire.
A doctor prescribed an antibiotic for a bad eye infection. Not only it cost money but it was ineffective. So I did what my grandmother would have done. Make chamomile tea, let it cool, filtered it to remove the plant parts floating in the intense yellow tea, and applied it with sterile cotton to my eye, resulting in quick healing.
There should be a law criminalizing the marketing of factory pharmaceuticals that are not as effective and cost more, sometimes much more than alternatives.
A doctor prescribed an antibiotic for a bad eye infection. Not only it cost money but it was ineffective. So I did what my grandmother would have done. Make chamomile tea, let it cool, filtered it to remove the plant parts floating in the intense yellow tea, and applied it with sterile cotton to my eye, resulting in quick healing.
There should be a law criminalizing the marketing of factory pharmaceuticals that are not as effective and cost more, sometimes much more than alternatives.
13
Pharmaceutical company apathy is the lead problem here and needs to be addressed. The driver of the problem is how new antibiotics are used (and should be used). They are reserved for last resorts at the beginning because only they can cure resistant disease. The problem is pharmaceutical patents run out before companies can make a return on their investments. We need to change the equation - make patents longer and / or make path to market easier. If pharmaceutical companies could make profits in antibiotics like they do in cancer, we would all be better off
Fantastic piece. Important topic. Good writing. Really enjoyed it. When's the book coming out?
5
Interesting that there is no mention of India's ancient Ayurved system which uncovered many remedies to chronic diseases and is still being actively practised. The term ethnobotanist seems to smack a little of condescension. These are sophisticated systems deserving deeper joint East-West research to find beneficial solutions for humankind, on an openly accessible basis.
12
Wonderful article. Thank you.
Respect for indigenous people synergizes with ability to learn from them. Of course rapacious pharmaceutical companies are incapable of either. So are governments complicit in stealing indigenous peoples' lands and resources - see right here, right now the Dakota access pipeline.
But Dr. Quave is right: either we learn from whomever has the knowledge, or we lose our ability to treat infections.
A first step is work like this article: raising awareness among the complacent of the threat of resistant pathogens. Among Staph, for example, MRSA are common and VISA (Staph failing to respond to the antibiotic of last resort) are creeping up.
A second step: relinquishing the racist contempt for cultures of ancient and indigenous people, contempt that is prevalent around the world, especially in this hemisphere.
A third step: making efforts to learn from them. In some countries like Germany, herbal remedies are already highly popular, and reimbursable by public insurance. Let's see if we are capable of learning.
Respect for indigenous people synergizes with ability to learn from them. Of course rapacious pharmaceutical companies are incapable of either. So are governments complicit in stealing indigenous peoples' lands and resources - see right here, right now the Dakota access pipeline.
But Dr. Quave is right: either we learn from whomever has the knowledge, or we lose our ability to treat infections.
A first step is work like this article: raising awareness among the complacent of the threat of resistant pathogens. Among Staph, for example, MRSA are common and VISA (Staph failing to respond to the antibiotic of last resort) are creeping up.
A second step: relinquishing the racist contempt for cultures of ancient and indigenous people, contempt that is prevalent around the world, especially in this hemisphere.
A third step: making efforts to learn from them. In some countries like Germany, herbal remedies are already highly popular, and reimbursable by public insurance. Let's see if we are capable of learning.
13
Thank you for this article:):):):)
4
Nature has traditionally been the guide for the design and synthesis of new drugs. Big Pharma obfuscates this. They'd like the public to think they invented them out of thin air...Ritalin and many other stimulants are knock-offs of the active ingredients found in ma huang AKA ephedra. The very toxic class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins are knock-offs of the natural ingredient found in red yeast rice (also toxic). Aspirin, the drug that your doctor tells you to take EVERYDAY, is a knock-off of the active ingredient found in white willow bark (safe pain killer). Baicalein, an anti-cancer drug used among those who suffer from leukemia, is a knock-off of the active ingredient found in the roots of Chinese skullcap (Scuterllaria baicalensis) (also safe!). The tiny family of prescription painkillers used by doctors are knock offs of the natural ingredients found in opium (opium is far safer than current fast acting drug knock-offs)...What does every knock off have in common? They're all far more toxic than the plant based predecessors. They have patent rights, and they're far more expensive...checkmate Big Pharma.
23
Surprised the author hasn't heard about Cellceutix's Brilacidin and their other defensin protein mimetics, the next class of antibiotics and inherently immune to resistance. Brilacidin just passed its Phase 2B.
5
I recommend Stephen Harrod Buhner's website -
- The Protocols/ Buhner Healing Lyme Q & A - buhnerhealinglyme.com -
Stephen describes herbal protocols for lyme disease and co-infections.
Examples of herbs -
Astragalus for prevention
Japanese knotweed
Also, Stephen's book - "Healing Lyme- updated 2nd edition 2015
Also, Stephen's book - "Healing Lyme - updated 2nd edition 2015 -
Examples of recommended herbs - Japanese knotweed root - Astragalus for prevention
- The Protocols/ Buhner Healing Lyme Q & A - buhnerhealinglyme.com -
Stephen describes herbal protocols for lyme disease and co-infections.
Examples of herbs -
Astragalus for prevention
Japanese knotweed
Also, Stephen's book - "Healing Lyme- updated 2nd edition 2015
Also, Stephen's book - "Healing Lyme - updated 2nd edition 2015 -
Examples of recommended herbs - Japanese knotweed root - Astragalus for prevention
7
Agreed! along with Stephen Harrod Buhner's book "Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-resistant Bacteria, Edition 2" published in 2012. It is hopeful to see an article like this one being published in the NY Times.
4
Thank you for this fascinating article. It offers hope to all those who suffer the toxic side effects of many pharmaceutical products--if only adequate funding can be found for more research.
10
Worthy work, and it's frustrating that one obstacle (though not the only one) is the medical-industrial complex, which has largely captured its regulatory agencies. The net-liberalization of drug discovery, with financial managers calling the shots on what research to carry out, has given us endless research on cholesterol decreases and cancer drugs, but much much less investigation of antibiotics, which have limited profit potential because you only need them for a week or so. Meanwhile, the drug approval grind -- virtuous and intention, but now a playground for rival pharmaceutical blocs gaming the layers and rules and timelines -- is hugely expensive and time consuming, making investigation of the many many many possible pathways of using plant-based compounds extremely daunting. It doesn't hurt that the FDA is also terrified of bad publicity if it makes a mistake in an approval. Nothing like a panel of ignorant Congresscritters excoriating an agency with pictures of a dead kid to suppress openness to innovation, after all.
In short, we've dogged our own creativity in too many layers of short-term financial thinking, politicized bureaucracy, and risk-averse politics to effectively make use of what our world offers in this area. Good luck to Dr. Quave to helping unclog those pathways just a little bit -- but sadly, identification of promising plants and pathways is only the first, and often easiest step.
In short, we've dogged our own creativity in too many layers of short-term financial thinking, politicized bureaucracy, and risk-averse politics to effectively make use of what our world offers in this area. Good luck to Dr. Quave to helping unclog those pathways just a little bit -- but sadly, identification of promising plants and pathways is only the first, and often easiest step.
30
I am trying to look at another picture of integration of biological system. Some infected people survive the flu, some do not. Some infected people survived the plague, some did not.
In other words some people have a better immune system than others. If that is hereditary or not I do not know.
But I do suggest that understanding the origins of a strong immune system may be another key for finding remedies for illnesses that may not be curable now or in the future with manufactured drugs.
In other words some people have a better immune system than others. If that is hereditary or not I do not know.
But I do suggest that understanding the origins of a strong immune system may be another key for finding remedies for illnesses that may not be curable now or in the future with manufactured drugs.
17
A point that you probably agree with, but still surprises many: a stronger immune system is not always helpful. Spanish flu, for example, had a higher mortality rate with the young because they had a strong immune system - they were killed by their immunological responses. Here's a popular article on one case of this principle: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130726103355.htm
We do need new antibiotics - hearing about Calvin Coolidge Jr.'s death on the Presidential podcast reminded me of this recently.
We do need new antibiotics - hearing about Calvin Coolidge Jr.'s death on the Presidential podcast reminded me of this recently.
Let's be clear about Quave's research; it is scientific. She uses logic and critical thinking to arrive at conclusions, unlike Naturopathy and Homeopathy among other types of alternative healing. I think there is a great deal of room for her study. Brava Ms. Quave!
36
Natural Products Chemistry WAS a huge pharmaceutical endeavor for decades and many drugs came from it that the FDA did indeed approve. Many were antibiotics. The difference is that these were not simply plant/fungal/bacterial extracts, they were purified compounds. Plants and other living organisms produce varying amounts of active components over the course of a single year based on ambient conditions, so the final pharmaceutical is optimized so the patients gets a specific dose. The "company" doesn't do all this--individual scientists who choose to devote their lives to curing disease come up with these life-saving drugs. The article is quite unclear about this.
15
I worked with indigenous people in the Yukon in Canada's north. They often talked about going "out on the land" to gather plants used in traditional medicine. This knowledge is dying out as the elders are no longer able to go out in the bush. I hope that this traditional knowledge can be captured and preserved.
21
The same can be said for the Cree in Ungava Peninsula, i.e. Northern Quebec.
1
I was a quant in Big Pharm a while, Evil Capitalist Enemy of Progress. Without TOO much apology, FDA (nominally an expression of democratic self-governance), requires repeatable outcomes; results described here are not that
An empirical scientist is obliged to be open minded; even non-replicable results must be looked at, as here
I doubt FDA prevents use or development of these compounds; rather issues are with advertising, and marketing. Nothing I know stops A from grinding up compound X and selling it to B, outside US
Mao-ist anti-malarial folk-botany in China is hardly impeded by US FDA strictures; if it worked we'd have heard about it
I expect Chinese Mao-ists would have marketed these results. Communists make the best capitalists, we know
=
I liked the author's
"When they form a critical mass, they start churning out toxins, ==>>exchanging genes<<== for antibiotic resistance and protecting themselves with a thick shell of sugar molecules that are impermeable to many drugs."
As a self-described quantitative scientist, with academic creds, I am an evolution-denier, not Young Earth Creationist, but rather, RANDOM mutation is preposterous; the universe is not old enough and the failed mutations are not deep enough in organic genetic loam, the 'wind in junkyard' rebuttal
RATHER, gene swapping, HYPOTHESIZED, is neo-genesis (if I may), and has economy and elegance, which we just now 'scientize' (engineer) in our labs, as GMO, the New Evil,or neo- witch burnings
An empirical scientist is obliged to be open minded; even non-replicable results must be looked at, as here
I doubt FDA prevents use or development of these compounds; rather issues are with advertising, and marketing. Nothing I know stops A from grinding up compound X and selling it to B, outside US
Mao-ist anti-malarial folk-botany in China is hardly impeded by US FDA strictures; if it worked we'd have heard about it
I expect Chinese Mao-ists would have marketed these results. Communists make the best capitalists, we know
=
I liked the author's
"When they form a critical mass, they start churning out toxins, ==>>exchanging genes<<== for antibiotic resistance and protecting themselves with a thick shell of sugar molecules that are impermeable to many drugs."
As a self-described quantitative scientist, with academic creds, I am an evolution-denier, not Young Earth Creationist, but rather, RANDOM mutation is preposterous; the universe is not old enough and the failed mutations are not deep enough in organic genetic loam, the 'wind in junkyard' rebuttal
RATHER, gene swapping, HYPOTHESIZED, is neo-genesis (if I may), and has economy and elegance, which we just now 'scientize' (engineer) in our labs, as GMO, the New Evil,or neo- witch burnings
2
This is a nice essay, even though the main points have been known for a long time: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358962/ ("Historical Review of Medicinal Plants' Usage"). Although herbal medicine have been used since ancient times, we have come a long way over the last five centuries of scientific development and the advent of penicillin.
The cardiac drug digitalis was known to treat certain types of heart conditions since the late 18th century, but it took time to figure out which parts of the plants to use, the best time of year to harvest, how to prepare the plant and how to extract active ingredients and scale up for wide distribution.
Various herbal teas are known to have many hundreds of organic compounds in their mix. Nutritional and medicinal values of plants can vary depending on when, where and how they are grown. Sometimes values for an agent can be lost over time, not just due to disease resistance, but also because of how the plants are grown. We have gotten better at emphasizing proof over testimonial--even with all the drawbacks and controversies surrounding peer review and placebo controlled trials.
Some of these stories have been popularized in books and movies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Man_(film) .
We should use all the tools available, but we are not going to be able to fund all approaches. We will have to pick and choose and sometimes we will get it wrong.
The cardiac drug digitalis was known to treat certain types of heart conditions since the late 18th century, but it took time to figure out which parts of the plants to use, the best time of year to harvest, how to prepare the plant and how to extract active ingredients and scale up for wide distribution.
Various herbal teas are known to have many hundreds of organic compounds in their mix. Nutritional and medicinal values of plants can vary depending on when, where and how they are grown. Sometimes values for an agent can be lost over time, not just due to disease resistance, but also because of how the plants are grown. We have gotten better at emphasizing proof over testimonial--even with all the drawbacks and controversies surrounding peer review and placebo controlled trials.
Some of these stories have been popularized in books and movies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Man_(film) .
We should use all the tools available, but we are not going to be able to fund all approaches. We will have to pick and choose and sometimes we will get it wrong.
6
What a relief that there are individuals like Dr. Quave willing to look beyond the present, consider the past and build a healthier future. Without mentioning big "pharma phutures", those of us even reading such an article already know how much profit is generated. That goes without saying. It is too bad that there is not a plant remedy to dispel the bigoted attitudes that plague our society today.
6
What happened to homogeneous?
When will we have heterogenous?
When will we have heterogenous?
God created men and nature evolved him over millions of years with slow and intricate chemistry and lot of patience and experimentation. And, not the other way around. Hence nature holds all the secrets and the cards. We can only benefit by learning more about nature and how it hurts us and, more importantly, can heal us. Healing with nature has no side effects because it is NATURAL WAY AND BODY WILL NOT BECOME RESISTANT TO IT.
10
"Ethnobotany is an offshoot of social sciences" ?
When I was student overseas, we were taught as a part Botany major, undergraduate and graduate curricula. Try getting a job with botany major!
Remembering how biologists were looked down upon by synthetic chemists in the era of combinatorial chemistry. Now it's era of so called biologics !
When I was student overseas, we were taught as a part Botany major, undergraduate and graduate curricula. Try getting a job with botany major!
Remembering how biologists were looked down upon by synthetic chemists in the era of combinatorial chemistry. Now it's era of so called biologics !
7
Great article. Too bad so many responses came from haters.
9
So happy to hear of this woman and her work! Please include hemp/marijuana possibilities too!! The medical establishment has work to do to change the way we think about these plants !!!
7
Why in gods name would anyone think that 'occasional nick' could be fatal without antibiotics? If people are being treated with antibiotics for the occasional nick, even now in the face of all the evidence of antibiotics over-use, I believe we have found the real story here rather than this fantasy piece.
The sickest I have ever been was after some idiot Doctor prescribed antibiotics for a cut, and like an idiot I took it. I hadn't been sick for a decade, but within a week of taking it I started getting every bug you can image, one after the other for months, and it took years to build my immunity back again to the point where I don't get sick anymore.
I was later told by a Med student friend that the prescription was just the Doctor covering himself (ineptly) in case I got an infection, and that in fact it was well known that oral antibiotics are worthless for topical cuts.
The sickest I have ever been was after some idiot Doctor prescribed antibiotics for a cut, and like an idiot I took it. I hadn't been sick for a decade, but within a week of taking it I started getting every bug you can image, one after the other for months, and it took years to build my immunity back again to the point where I don't get sick anymore.
I was later told by a Med student friend that the prescription was just the Doctor covering himself (ineptly) in case I got an infection, and that in fact it was well known that oral antibiotics are worthless for topical cuts.
19
Ach! I was so thrilled to be reading this - and am still glad than I stumbled upon it - but a THUD came at the very end with: "Let's get some bags. Grab as much as you can." Dear Ms. Quave, say it isn't so. See Robin Wall Kimmerer, "Braiding Sweetgrass" page 181: "...Never take the first. Never take the last. Take only what you need. Take that which is given. Never take more than half. Leave some for others. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. ...Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever."
35
ummmmm plantago is literally the most common weed on the entire planet, i think it'll be ok,
4
I appreciate the NYTs highlighting her work. More work especially in the antibiotic area should be encouraged. But Please. Many or most pharmaceuticals have their origin in natural products. While not patentable, natural products usually do not have optimized properties to treat illness effectively. Research groups modify (tinker with) the identified structure to maximize potency, bioavailability, selectivity etc. The exercise is a starting point and not an end.
5
With antibiotic crises looming and private drug development unlikely for a variety of reasons, it's a good time for public or philanthropic sponsorship of new treatments, some of which are likely to be very different from typical present-day antibiotics.
Appreciation is growing for the complex chemical interactions in nature. An example would be a recent book, "The Phytochemical Landscape: Linking Trophic Interactions and Nutrient Dynamics" by Mark D. Hunter.
Appreciation is growing for the complex chemical interactions in nature. An example would be a recent book, "The Phytochemical Landscape: Linking Trophic Interactions and Nutrient Dynamics" by Mark D. Hunter.
9
Ayurveda an ancient Indian medicinal system with herbal treatment such as Tulasi, Pudina, Henna Cinamen, Neem etc, is very popular in rural India. Lot of research is necessary to authenticate the benefits by scientific community and get benefited the whole world. This is low cost and almost no side effects. Vast knowledge is available in India regarding this herbal medicinal plants and its use for various ailments.
14
There is always a post about ancient medicinal systems in these conversations.... Peasants in rural India turn to traditional treatments because they can neither afford to see medical doctors, nor afford to buy modern medication. In much of rural India, the peasant's median life expectancy is still below 70, which would indicate the ancient medicinal remedies don't work as well as some would like us to believe.
Now research how Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy who invented a technique of potentizing plants, minerals and animal extracts to maximize the healing properties of these substances while eliminating toxic side effects. Belladonna, for example, a deadly nightshade, is diluted a specific number of times, 1 gr. of it to 99 gr. lactose, then diluted and shaken at each level. Eventually, as the molecules disappear, the vital energy is maintained from the belladonna without any toxic residues. It is widely used for sudden infections. There are now over 10,000 homeopathic remedies that have been prepared in an identical manner. Homeopathy is widely accepted and practiced in Europe, and research funding is available in European countries, but still looked upon suspiciously in America by conventional medicine.
11
This is pure superstition
7
When you dilute a compound by 1/10 more than 24 times, you have very likely eliminated any occurrence of the original molecule. When Avogadro produced his work, homeopathy was completely discredited. This is pretty simple, easily explained mathematics.
8
The big difference between traditional medicine and "systems" like Hahnemann's homeopathy is that traditional medicine has thousands of years of trial and error behind it. This is also a kind of evolution, of iterative practice that saves what works. Homeopathy was dreamed up from whole cloth by a 19th century gentleman.
The one big advantage of homeopathy is that its placebo effect - which is the utility is does have - is unmarred by toxic unwanted effects, because its "medicines" consist essentially of pure water (as the commenter describes, everything is endlessly diluted).
We have a lot to learn from ancient medical traditions from around the world about potent plant compounds. From homeopathy, we learn the power of placebo.
The one big advantage of homeopathy is that its placebo effect - which is the utility is does have - is unmarred by toxic unwanted effects, because its "medicines" consist essentially of pure water (as the commenter describes, everything is endlessly diluted).
We have a lot to learn from ancient medical traditions from around the world about potent plant compounds. From homeopathy, we learn the power of placebo.
3
Two annecdotes about the recent success of new antimicrobials and the potential for discovering more could have helped assuage a readers concern about the looming yet often overlooked antimicrobial resistance crisis: the recent breakthrough in culturing soil bacterium with iChip technology that led to the discovery of the novel antibiotic, teixobactin (slightly off topic), and a highlight reel from the last two decades of China's fruitful efforts to modernize Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by interrogating herbal remedies with robust biochemical and pharmacological analysis.
1
But only if we preserve the plants. If we let them go extinct, then forget it.
11
you guys are all crazy.you react to stick with big Pharma instead of the natural world? there are so many herbalists and other health practitioners offering wonderful salvos its amazing we need medical doctors and their stilted thinking at all.
4
Ohforgodsake. Salvos?
Watch and wonder as the testimonials roll out. This article will enable all those fringe practitioners validation for any and all "natural" cures. The "appeal to nature" fallacy runs rampant today, as anyone surfing the internet or watching healers of every stripe popping up in strip malls. There are hidden medical miracles in those herbs and potions to be sure, as research has already shown. But before rejecting traditional medicine and big Pharma in toto as an exercise in corporate corruption, greed and conspiracy, let us fund sources of good quality scientific studies to support new treatments. The public needs to be able to trust sources of new information, and be taught how to weed out the snake oil.
44
Well,
at first I thought you were just being cynical... then I started reading more comments. People don't get that science is just trying to understand nature.
Simply trying to find what works and what doesn't and some of these people are taking her as the anti-Monsanto!
at first I thought you were just being cynical... then I started reading more comments. People don't get that science is just trying to understand nature.
Simply trying to find what works and what doesn't and some of these people are taking her as the anti-Monsanto!
2
Or you can do some scientific experimenting of your own on yourself. Try some of the home remedies--find a book with a strong medical bent to it that explains a bit of the pharmacology of the herbs or traditional remedies. Treat minor injuries. See how it goes. The human race survived without the need of modern Western medicine for millennia, and traditional medicine practices, like those found in China, still keep people alive and healthy today.
3
Everyone knows there is gross profiteering in big Pharma, especially in the United States, where we are just suckers. Everyone knows that despite the FDA there is snake oil, particularly where side effects outweigh benefits. And of course everyone knows there are all of these features in natural medicines. Nothing new under the sun. There is corruption in every trade. The us and them mentality helps no one.
4
"Alligators had attacked dogs and ducks around here in the past. “But don’t worry,” Quave said, tracing the pond’s perimeter. “If we see one, I’m going to shoot it."
Outrageous! Even if she just sees one? Carry a sturdy stick, and if one comes close, whack it on the nose! Kill it only as a last resort.
This is very disappointing. This scientist's appreciation and consideration of nature appears to apply only to the plant kingdom.
Outrageous! Even if she just sees one? Carry a sturdy stick, and if one comes close, whack it on the nose! Kill it only as a last resort.
This is very disappointing. This scientist's appreciation and consideration of nature appears to apply only to the plant kingdom.
25
That comment smacks of naïveté. I think a woman who has grown up spending so much time outdoors in that environment probably knows best how to deal with alligators. When encountering deadly predators in the real world, you don't take chances by whacking them with a stick on the nose. She's still alive and still retains her remaining leg. You, I suspect, given your suggested method of dealing with them, might not be around after enough encounters with alligators.
8
I'd be shooting it too!
3
Really? Would love to plop you down in a pond with large gators who have the ability to approach you sight unseen and see how you fare with your 'stick'.
2
Not to be a Debby Downer but the idea that we could tap into traditional knowledge to short-cut the discovery pathway drug development was the stock in trade of Shaman Pharmaceuticals. The reality proved to be more difficult than the theory. After an IPO Shaman Pharmaceutical quickly was renamed "Shame-on Pharmaceuticals" as they were rapidly forced to refinance at lower valuations. I think the enterprise was subsequently abandoned or receded into commercial obscurity.
4
There's a point here somewhere...
3
One business does not make thousands of years and thousands of learning in thousands of cultures. One an never generalize from a single example to the whole. But I agree that great learning will be necessary. Ancient medicines were the products of great learning.
1
It isn't either/or, Allan. She's looking for adjunctive methods to confuse microbes that have developed resistance to traditional antibiotics. Yes, her theories may fail, but she is looking to help pharmaceuticals, not to get rid of them.
1
I do wish the author of the article would have mentioned one major source of the pharmaceutical industry's reluctance to work with plant-based medicines: you can't patent a plant. Therefore, you can't get a monopoly on the product you've produced so you can't protect your profits as easily. Yes, you can patent a process, but if someone can create a similar product from the same plant with a different process then you have competition which knocks prices down.
134
the thing is, many common medicines already do come from plants. they isolate the chemical compound and thats how drugs are created
"Therefore, you can't get a monopoly on the product you've produced so you can't protect your profits as easily."
As in epinephrine injector pens?
HIV/AIDS drugs?
If companies can make medicines without monopolies on them, society is better off. The whole profit-motive-is-the only-good-way-to-produce-medicines is a shield to hide behind for those who want to make obscene money -- and company shareholders with no skin in the game, parasitically wanting a piece of the pie.
As in epinephrine injector pens?
HIV/AIDS drugs?
If companies can make medicines without monopolies on them, society is better off. The whole profit-motive-is-the only-good-way-to-produce-medicines is a shield to hide behind for those who want to make obscene money -- and company shareholders with no skin in the game, parasitically wanting a piece of the pie.
6
"you can't patent a plant"
Well....this was true for a long time. Along comes Monsanto--they have developed "new life" and have been successful in obtaining patents on the life they've created.
Of course, when it comes to safety ,their products are "just like any/everything else"....."crossbreeding has been going on for thousands of years".
Well....this was true for a long time. Along comes Monsanto--they have developed "new life" and have been successful in obtaining patents on the life they've created.
Of course, when it comes to safety ,their products are "just like any/everything else"....."crossbreeding has been going on for thousands of years".
4
After years of ridiculing as pseudoscience, suddenly we are remembering traditional medicine actually worked?
36
Bear in mind that anything ancient, including Ancient Remedies, was devised or discovered before anybody knew about microbes -- bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. It was also way before anybody knew about microbes that attack microbes, the way penicillin made by a mold disables the cell walls made by certain bacteria. So ALL the folk remedies were shooting in the dark, which is okay if all of the practitioners were consistent about their recipes and administration -- which is a tall order when biological starting material is pretty variable. I'm pretty sure that there were, or are, folk remedies that were actually not the work of the plants per se but of the microorganisms that were cultured when the plants were processed and made into a poultice or a tincture. In Romeo and Juliet, five hundred years ago, Juliet's mom says to Juliet's Nurse, "They call for dates, and quinces, in the pastry." That was an order to the kitchen staff to make sure that Juliet got her customary dose of quince to ward off the inevitable honeymoon cystitis.
14
People may not have known them as the critters we today can see under microscopes, but they may well have known their properties, reactions and susceptibilities and not have been shooting in the dark at all. Your virus is my spirit. Let's compare properties and see how they match up. Enormous variance from culture to culture. But it is WE who shoot in the dark when we generalize about ancestral learnings in thousands of cultures about which we have zero or certainly no in depth knowledge.
5
What a marvelous article! So interesting and so beautifully written! Thouroghly enjoyable break from reading sbout you-know-who....
32
Check out US patent 8,063,026 . I got a patent for a certain palliative but I'm hesitant to say much about it, other than that it is germane to this Discussion.
2
The pharmaceutical companies are constantly pressuring Congress to pass laws to keep natural remedies out of our hands, so that they can reap huge profits from patented drugs. Only the DSHEA law has kept their greedy paws off our supplements, and we must be vigilant to protect it.
20
What a nice surprise to read this article today while I'm researching herbs we may be able to use in conjunction with the many antibiotics our teenager must pulse to knock down multiple tick-based infections. He has used artemisinin which is mentioned in the article with malarone (a pharmaceutical anti-malerial) to combat babesia. He and many chronic Lyme patients use a variety of herbal tinctures including ones from the Amazon that were brought north by missionaries who learned of their powers from the local shamans, such as Don Antonio. It is a long slow process to heal but they do work for many patients. We would like nothing more that to be able to use herbs exclusively and most likely will once he hits the maintenance/remission phase. Perhaps with Dr. Quave's research and others who learn from the shamans, one day we may.
38
wouldn't this be a good area for our government to get involved in funding research, since the pharmaceutical companies won't? Could the stakes be any higher?
114
The pharmaceutical lobbyist's control our government.
But each of us has the power to interact with plants. They are here for us, and they are incredibly patient with our antics. Plants don't need humans.
This is an excellent article. If you have an interest in healing plants you don't have to be an ethnobotonist to learn how to use them. There are many books that have been published and more coming about to instruct citizens how to treat their own maladies. It's very exciting.
But each of us has the power to interact with plants. They are here for us, and they are incredibly patient with our antics. Plants don't need humans.
This is an excellent article. If you have an interest in healing plants you don't have to be an ethnobotonist to learn how to use them. There are many books that have been published and more coming about to instruct citizens how to treat their own maladies. It's very exciting.
1
Ask the Republicans. They are the ones who - dependent on money from Big Pharma - refuse to fund this type of research. To be fair, they actually resist funding any sort of research. You know, the private sector does it better.
Yeah, right. If they can make a killing from jacking up the price of an old drug, why spend money on developing new ones?
Yeah, right. If they can make a killing from jacking up the price of an old drug, why spend money on developing new ones?
Kudos to Dr. Quave! She is doing such important work! With all our technology, pharmaceuticals, etc. we are losing our connection to Mother Earth and becoming sicker and sicker. We must reconnect to our brothers, the plants, and to our Mother Earth, if we want to survive as a species. Monstanto is doing everything in their power to destroy nature and we must stop this before it's too late!!!
67
I was part of the resurrection of Naturopathic Medicine in the 70's which coincided with the "birth" of the natural foods movement. We studied under the supervision of the likes of John Bastyr, William Turska and A.W.K Cheraux who trained in the 1930's before the advent of modern pharmaceuticals. Our North American medical history is also ripe with plant and other substances that in their whole unextracted forms can aid the body in fighting dis-ease and degeneration. We were taught and accepted the concept of wholeness in that there exists in the plant buffers that can reduce or remove side effects from some potentially toxic parts of the plant.
We were and are also a sort of ethnobotanist and share the views of Professor Quave. As she has shown these plants work in ways that are now being rediscovered by western medicine though still facing continued distrust from the allopathic medical community. But do not despair, for Naturopathic Medicine is growing by leaps and bounds in the US of A and the world as we discover our past successes. Not all states have come to accept and license Naturopathic Physicians, but more have come on board since the six that did in the 70’s. Check out the website of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians for local info. www.naturopathic.org. But be careful, in unlicensed states there are people with correspondence degrees who claim to be naturopathic doctors. Rob Cagen, N.D. (retired)
We were and are also a sort of ethnobotanist and share the views of Professor Quave. As she has shown these plants work in ways that are now being rediscovered by western medicine though still facing continued distrust from the allopathic medical community. But do not despair, for Naturopathic Medicine is growing by leaps and bounds in the US of A and the world as we discover our past successes. Not all states have come to accept and license Naturopathic Physicians, but more have come on board since the six that did in the 70’s. Check out the website of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians for local info. www.naturopathic.org. But be careful, in unlicensed states there are people with correspondence degrees who claim to be naturopathic doctors. Rob Cagen, N.D. (retired)
17
And there are many organizations working to keep naturopaths from being licensed, and for good reason. There are problems, to be sure, in conventional medicine, but the answer is not to license those who have no business serving as general practitioners to the population. Real harm can and does result from people seeking "cures" in unproven and sometimes dangerous alternative medicine, especially in the name of chiropractors, who seek to manage problems far outside the scope of back pain. For some enlightening reading on this topic and more, please see:
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/legislative-alchemy-naturopathic-li...
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/legislative-alchemy-naturopathic-li...
11
I was born in New York and spent 34 years in NYC before destiny whisked me off to "The Hills Are Alive" Austria where I have lived the last 27 years of my life. I live under a mountain at the mouth of an enchanted forest. I remember days in NYC where I looked uptown to downtown and there was a layer of dark smog cutting through it. I traveled on my bike every day as my means of transport. When I had to blow my nose that filthy air came out.
Since I'm here the botanical wonders of plants and flowers continue to amaze me. I've educated myself, grow my own food and I'm a passionate forager. I'm 60 years old and don't remember the last time I took an aspirin or even had a sniffle let alone a cold in 27 years! Still, I've raised two children and whenever something needed treatment (burns, cuts, rashes, etc) it was done with plants and flowers only. They have never taken an antibiotic. Happy, too!
My husband had trouble with his meniscus in both knees. He went to our garden and pulled Beinwell (Symphytum Officinale) from the roots, cut and dried them and ground them into a powder to which he added olive oil to make a paste. He wrapped both knees with paste on them for three days and the pain was gone. Our doctor wanted to give him strong painkillers and cortisone which he refused. He treats his headaches and acid reflux with plants and flowers which he drinks as tea. Nature is AWESOME! All her gifts are there in healing.
And Yes, The Hills Are ALIVE!
Since I'm here the botanical wonders of plants and flowers continue to amaze me. I've educated myself, grow my own food and I'm a passionate forager. I'm 60 years old and don't remember the last time I took an aspirin or even had a sniffle let alone a cold in 27 years! Still, I've raised two children and whenever something needed treatment (burns, cuts, rashes, etc) it was done with plants and flowers only. They have never taken an antibiotic. Happy, too!
My husband had trouble with his meniscus in both knees. He went to our garden and pulled Beinwell (Symphytum Officinale) from the roots, cut and dried them and ground them into a powder to which he added olive oil to make a paste. He wrapped both knees with paste on them for three days and the pain was gone. Our doctor wanted to give him strong painkillers and cortisone which he refused. He treats his headaches and acid reflux with plants and flowers which he drinks as tea. Nature is AWESOME! All her gifts are there in healing.
And Yes, The Hills Are ALIVE!
157
Comfrey! (Symphytum Officinale) What a blessing this herb is and thank you for sharing this story with us. You can read more about Symphytum in, "Wisdom of the Plant Devas: Herbal Medicine for a New Earth.
1
Hi CT. I actually thought of you when I was in a Bavarian forest this past spring. I'd booked a ticket to Bad Worishofen from Edinburgh, where my husband and I had been living for two years. I remembered well your comment from a previous article, and it served as part of my inspiration to travel there and study/experience Kneipp remedies at their source. I wish I knew you and could have stopped in for a cup of (herbal) tea and a chat. So glad you've shared your story here, thank you. -Amy
2
CT, is your knowledge (or its sources) somewhere online? If not, can you share the headache treatment? I have a friend with an almost chronic headache.
1
Interesting! The article keeps going "knowing" how to use these plants as medicine. Whether it is the cold water steeping for malaria drug or the Amazon fig tree sap. I wish not only plants but also the knowledge on how to use it right is preserved.
Another major plant based medicine system, which I have experienced in my life is Ayurveda. Besides cosmetic fad for massages, it offers real cures for conditions not treatable by western medicine.
Ironically, the folk medicine usage in India is all not captured as well. I remember being bitten by a rabid dog and a lady passing by plucked a Calatropis branch and squeezed the milky fluid on my bite. Now, whether that prevented rabies I am not sure but it may be worth investigating.
Another major plant based medicine system, which I have experienced in my life is Ayurveda. Besides cosmetic fad for massages, it offers real cures for conditions not treatable by western medicine.
Ironically, the folk medicine usage in India is all not captured as well. I remember being bitten by a rabid dog and a lady passing by plucked a Calatropis branch and squeezed the milky fluid on my bite. Now, whether that prevented rabies I am not sure but it may be worth investigating.
21
Wonderful piece. Quave is a wonderful character, and even a possible hero for my 6 year old who loves science, plants, healing, and mysteries. The piece reminded me strongly of Elizabeth Gilbert's fantastic novel, The Signature of All Things, which is about an equally interesting female scientist who specializes in mosses. Quave should win a McArthur, and more. Give that woman lots of support, of all kinds, good for us all!
121
If antibacterial treatments derived from higher plants will lull society to ignore the threat of evolving drug resistant pathogens, we'll, soon face bacteria resistant to the "plant derived" drugs. Plant derived drugs, while useful, will be no panacea.
Also obtaining drugs from agriculturel crops will require more labor, land and water, compared with growing microorganisms in culture vats as a source of the drugs.
There is no escape from the need to use antibiotics more wisely.
Also obtaining drugs from agriculturel crops will require more labor, land and water, compared with growing microorganisms in culture vats as a source of the drugs.
There is no escape from the need to use antibiotics more wisely.
13
Oh, sings Monsanto & Dow Chemical, with Republican Congressional zealots chiming in with them, why worry over what drugs from natural plants can do for us, we can genetically create or modify anything we want and this GMO will be better than anything Mother Nature created. But replies the plant naturalist, Nature evolved this plant and its genes over hundred of thousands of years. Thats what evolution does. It works to get things right. That's got to be worth something? The Republican zealot, looking a lot like the pinched angry face of a Tea Party Congressman snarls, "Evolution. Did you say evolution?"
39
Please don't politicize this article or the need for more treatment options - open your mind to a world beyond politics.
9
The pharmaceutical corporations aren't apathetic. Herbal cures that actually work are rare. Corporations can't patent an entire species, they must identify specific active ingredients in order to make a profit. They are not in business to help people, they are in business to make money for their stockholders. Analyzing herbal cures is a waste of time that could be used to identify existing drugs that can produce additional value, as with the epi pen.
5
"They are not in business to help people, they are in business to make money for their stockholders."......True, but it is also true that the pharmaceutical companies will not make very much money if they don't make drugs that help people.
5
I don't know why, but I love this story. Love it. Give me more. More, more, more!!!!
63
Thank you for this fascinating and important article. Ancient knowledge of plants, and how they can be used medicinally, is a tremendously valuable resource. Personally, on two separate occasions over the decades I have had serious conditions that "modern" western medicine failed to resolve, and actually made worse. In desperation I sought out practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine & acupuncture -- they cured and/or corrected the problems. The discipline of herbal medicine is complex and difficult to master. We should encourage more young people to learn about the resources being explored by Ms. Quave.
24
Dr. Quave, wonderful!
Especially using locally-sourced plants from Florida.
Biopiracy, however, has gone on for ages and ages - even coffee was slipped out of Africa in a flower bouquet.
The native people whence this project is going are to be recognized and given honorariums - real, American honorariums, as medical collaborators and their name needs to be adjunct to the intelligence gathered on the field.
As such, "Don Antonio" needs to be, not only acknowledged in this article, but his last name and legal name needs to be also sought out and his fees need to be given in dollars, not in a local fee which sometimes is nothing as curanderos are given to truly live the Hippocrates oath.
That habit could be learned by doctors, to cure as needed, as well as learning about the Peruvian plants.
The fees due to Mexican Native Americans for the secret that became birth-control pills in the 1960´s is incalculable -
These Mexican Native Americans also selected seeds for modern corn over 9,000 years, developing chocolate, tomato, vanilla, pecans, papaya, guavas, rubber trees, pumpkins, beans and marigolds. This was done over thousands of years with knowledge from master agronomists, astronomers, engineers, poets: Many of these skills in one person called Tlatoani - The one who has the word, speaks. Tlatoani was the equivalent of the nation´s president.
Consider the impact of those agricultural products worldwide.
Let´s learn to acknowledge the First People worldwide.
Especially using locally-sourced plants from Florida.
Biopiracy, however, has gone on for ages and ages - even coffee was slipped out of Africa in a flower bouquet.
The native people whence this project is going are to be recognized and given honorariums - real, American honorariums, as medical collaborators and their name needs to be adjunct to the intelligence gathered on the field.
As such, "Don Antonio" needs to be, not only acknowledged in this article, but his last name and legal name needs to be also sought out and his fees need to be given in dollars, not in a local fee which sometimes is nothing as curanderos are given to truly live the Hippocrates oath.
That habit could be learned by doctors, to cure as needed, as well as learning about the Peruvian plants.
The fees due to Mexican Native Americans for the secret that became birth-control pills in the 1960´s is incalculable -
These Mexican Native Americans also selected seeds for modern corn over 9,000 years, developing chocolate, tomato, vanilla, pecans, papaya, guavas, rubber trees, pumpkins, beans and marigolds. This was done over thousands of years with knowledge from master agronomists, astronomers, engineers, poets: Many of these skills in one person called Tlatoani - The one who has the word, speaks. Tlatoani was the equivalent of the nation´s president.
Consider the impact of those agricultural products worldwide.
Let´s learn to acknowledge the First People worldwide.
47
When I was refused a second round of antibiotics for Lyme disease by my doctor, I used herbal tinctures Buhner protocol. They worked for me.
I was sick for at least six months but would have been far sicker and for longer maybe not cured without.
I was sick for at least six months but would have been far sicker and for longer maybe not cured without.
8
This article was so fascinating to me! Counter to the prevailing confidence in "science," I find myself moving towards the natural healing power of nature. Over the past two years, I have completely cleared my arteries of plaque, cleared my sinuses, reversed all symptoms of arthritis and broken down the unwanted fibrin in my blood to reduce viscosity through the use of a proteolytic enzyme called Serrapeptase. It comes from the silk worm which uses the enzyme to eat a hole through the cocoon in order to emerge. The enzyme eats away all nonliving tissue, so the butterfly is unharmed. When I excitedly told a family member, who is a doctor, about these miraculous results (with no side effects) she looked at me like I was crazy! I used to tell everyone who would listen, but received the same reaction. I gave up "spreading the gospel" because as soon as people hear it doesn't come from a lab, they can't conceive of how it could possibly be effective. Such a shame! BTW, this has been used in Europe for decades for reduction of post surgical scar formation. Oh, also BTW, I am 64 and participate in walking marathons, my blood pressure is 110/70, my cholesterol is normal and I take no prescription drugs. If you're thinking good genes, my mother died of congestive heart failure after having two major strokes over a four year period, suffered from both high cholesterol and blood pressure, kidney disease and osteoporosis.
47
Science is just our attempt to understand nature, which is exactly what this article is about.
Not sure why you are trying to separate it?
Not sure why you are trying to separate it?
3
This is another argument for increased government funding of medical research.
86
Beautifully written.
9
Why no mention of Ayurvedic medicine by the author?
5
Also, why not research the powerful organic chemist within plants. As pointed out, evolution has developed plant anabolic metabolism that rival human factories. Plant enzymes are commonly used in analytical systems to measure cholesterol, glucose and many other complex chemical compounds. Drugs which are designed, considering the nature of genetic and molecular pathologies, are often too complex for the usual factory organic synthesis. Such designer medication might well be made by plant enzymes or even entire crude extracts with metabolic activity. The trial and error approach of sorting through the vast number of components in plants is unappealing to corporations, who set goals and promise their stakeholders results within a defined timeframe. Looking for the magician chemist in the plant kingdom might appeal to the corporate mindset.
It seems doctors in India recently performed a surgery using only natural products in place of antibiotics, based on Ayurveda:
http://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/-Ayurved...
Surprising that in the whole article there was no mention of Ayurveda, even though most other ethnic medicine systems were.
http://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/-Ayurved...
Surprising that in the whole article there was no mention of Ayurveda, even though most other ethnic medicine systems were.
7
People keep saying why didn't this article mention Ayurveda. Pls consider requesting more articles on the various traditions instead.
If all is to be discussed in one article the opportunity for more may be missed.
Plants are seriously undervalued. We need more discussion on them in general.
If all is to be discussed in one article the opportunity for more may be missed.
Plants are seriously undervalued. We need more discussion on them in general.
16
It wouldn't hurt to start looking at Traditional Chinese Medicine for some very old hints.
15
The medical profession bears a huge responsibility here. Are you a doctor, or what? If you give antibiotics just to please your patients, you are NOT a doctor. There is a more ancient profession that you are an adjunct to. We have known for years that this is a danger, but just like global warming, we ignore it and hope someone else will take care of the problem.
6
Most antibiotics are other organisms that keep the illness causing organisms in check. Our microbiome protects us the same way. So when you defoliate your face you are killing the organisms that protect the skin on your face.
1
Thank you so much for this article, well written and balanced and without the excessive romanticization that can obstruct science and serious consideration.
This article is rich with areas that could be explored further.
Among others; the historic and prehistoric use of plants as medicine by animals and people.
The history of botany and ethnobotany - Expeditions "discovering" regions often had members documenting and collecting plants. Their potential for economic and medical importance has not passed.
Please report on the trend in universities toward lab science and away from field work which leaves so much of this potential at risk. This is relatively unknown outside of people already involved. So much knowledge to be lost. As the population of field biologists dwindles, who will teach the next ones?
Report on field work done in this country and elsewhere.
Report on the fieldwork done cooperatively in border regions and the impact of political conflict on this.
Reporting that could make more people aware of regions in our nation that need protection for just this. The desert is as important as the rainforest.
And please give us articles about new visions for the system of bringing medicines into production and to the people who need them. And what it will take to make this happen, politically, socially, economically etc, the works.
Thanks again.
This article is rich with areas that could be explored further.
Among others; the historic and prehistoric use of plants as medicine by animals and people.
The history of botany and ethnobotany - Expeditions "discovering" regions often had members documenting and collecting plants. Their potential for economic and medical importance has not passed.
Please report on the trend in universities toward lab science and away from field work which leaves so much of this potential at risk. This is relatively unknown outside of people already involved. So much knowledge to be lost. As the population of field biologists dwindles, who will teach the next ones?
Report on field work done in this country and elsewhere.
Report on the fieldwork done cooperatively in border regions and the impact of political conflict on this.
Reporting that could make more people aware of regions in our nation that need protection for just this. The desert is as important as the rainforest.
And please give us articles about new visions for the system of bringing medicines into production and to the people who need them. And what it will take to make this happen, politically, socially, economically etc, the works.
Thanks again.
14
I began to appreciate how powerful plants were when I learned that propolis, a substance that bees make from plant sap to coat the inside of their hives, was found to have high anti-microbial properties, and is even being used for in vitro cancer studies.
Two unsurprising items from this article: that Big Pharma is only interested in something with big-bucks potential, and that there are bioactive synergies in plant compounds that don't work as well, or for very long when separated. How much farther along might we be with cures if so many medicines, and potential ones, hadn't been abandoned due to low profit prospects? As long as pharmacology is at the mercy of hedge-fund managers, progress will be limited both in scope and availability. If only we could have bottled the generous spirit of Jonas Salk!
Two unsurprising items from this article: that Big Pharma is only interested in something with big-bucks potential, and that there are bioactive synergies in plant compounds that don't work as well, or for very long when separated. How much farther along might we be with cures if so many medicines, and potential ones, hadn't been abandoned due to low profit prospects? As long as pharmacology is at the mercy of hedge-fund managers, progress will be limited both in scope and availability. If only we could have bottled the generous spirit of Jonas Salk!
55
Before Fleming discovered that fungi produce and excrete anti-bacterial compounds, plants were humankind's main sources of medicine.
Because Ehrlich's "silver bullet" chemical was soon replaced by naturally-occurring anti-bacterials, perhaps plants were never adequately investigated for anti-bacterial compounds.
But the idea that plants will miraculously replace fungal- and bacterial-based antibiotics is probably wishful thinking.
All antibiotics, regardless of their sources, will produce resistance.
And the reason Big Pharm isn't interesting in new antibiotics is because a product that is should be used as little as possible, to reduce resistance, does not produce any profits.
Thus, the root problem is NOT the source of new antibiotics.
The source of the problem is that Capitalism is about making money, not preserving health.
Because Ehrlich's "silver bullet" chemical was soon replaced by naturally-occurring anti-bacterials, perhaps plants were never adequately investigated for anti-bacterial compounds.
But the idea that plants will miraculously replace fungal- and bacterial-based antibiotics is probably wishful thinking.
All antibiotics, regardless of their sources, will produce resistance.
And the reason Big Pharm isn't interesting in new antibiotics is because a product that is should be used as little as possible, to reduce resistance, does not produce any profits.
Thus, the root problem is NOT the source of new antibiotics.
The source of the problem is that Capitalism is about making money, not preserving health.
16
This reminds me of the study undertaken to reproduce an eye infection cure in Bald's Leechbook - from approximately 1,000 years ago.
Did I mention that it killed MRSA in the study? The original Anglo-Saxon 'ancientbiotic'!
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32117815
Did I mention that it killed MRSA in the study? The original Anglo-Saxon 'ancientbiotic'!
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32117815
7
Ancient Remedies ? Marijuana !
Been tested and used for thousands of years for all types of ailments. It is a mental health balm too. Nothing wrong with a little giggle and glow to put a dance in your step.
Any chance of the FDA and DEA facing reality ? Oh I see, they get by with punishing folks for kicks. They really ought to get a life and let others live.
The prisons are over crowded with folks who enjoyed a nice day, with a little help from their friends, until the DEA gang stepped on them.
Been tested and used for thousands of years for all types of ailments. It is a mental health balm too. Nothing wrong with a little giggle and glow to put a dance in your step.
Any chance of the FDA and DEA facing reality ? Oh I see, they get by with punishing folks for kicks. They really ought to get a life and let others live.
The prisons are over crowded with folks who enjoyed a nice day, with a little help from their friends, until the DEA gang stepped on them.
5
One of the best indications that the medical claims for a given agent are phony, is the claim that they can be used to treat a wide range of ailments. The world of science doesn't usually work that way.
Antibiotics were invented for a reason.
I grew up in Eastern Europe, and herbal remedies are quite popular there. Having first-hand experience with such drugs, I'd say they _may_ _be_ marginally effective in some cases, e.g. if one has a light cold (take raspberry and ginger tea) or mild insomnia (valeriana root). But these drugs are not effective at all if you have more-or-less serious condition, like pneumonia or a urinary infection. Herbs won't treat those. And the whole history of mankind is a proof to that - herbs were used for centuries, but people were routinely dying from infections until first antibiotics were developed.
So we'd rather need researching a new generations of antibiotics rather than rely on medicines that are marginally effective, at best.
I grew up in Eastern Europe, and herbal remedies are quite popular there. Having first-hand experience with such drugs, I'd say they _may_ _be_ marginally effective in some cases, e.g. if one has a light cold (take raspberry and ginger tea) or mild insomnia (valeriana root). But these drugs are not effective at all if you have more-or-less serious condition, like pneumonia or a urinary infection. Herbs won't treat those. And the whole history of mankind is a proof to that - herbs were used for centuries, but people were routinely dying from infections until first antibiotics were developed.
So we'd rather need researching a new generations of antibiotics rather than rely on medicines that are marginally effective, at best.
10
I once knew a virologist who claimed that antibiotics were only 50% effective. When questioned his acumen he said - It is a fact that 50% of the people with a bacterial infection will recover without treatment.
5
There are herbal antibiotics, read Buhner. I used them for Lyme disease when I was refused anymore antibiotics. They work and I was cured.
Like big pharma antibiotics, the plants work in the same manner. Some work for some problems and not others.
I took a variety combo suggested by Buhner and it wiped the Lyme out.
Like big pharma antibiotics, the plants work in the same manner. Some work for some problems and not others.
I took a variety combo suggested by Buhner and it wiped the Lyme out.
5
Here, here-- the avenue of using these herbs is a clear-- several herbs can be antiviral also. The issue is that there is no money in herbal medicine-- no big patent protection- yet for big pharma to introduce it they need to appropriately prove that is safe-- a Catch 22. Here we need for our government to bypass Big Pharma and prove efficacy and safety. Coauthor of Xenohormesis: health benefits from an eon of plant stress response evolution. Cell Stress and Chaperones 2010
1
Does anyone think this is new, cutting-edge thinking? Tamoxifen is based on yew trees. Aspirin is found in willow bark. Gee — if only all those "wise women" hadn't been run out of town on a rail or stoned as witches we might remember some of what they knew.
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Yes, those 'wise women' who healed the sick and their families with plants were CLEARLY in league with the devil!
3
Over 40 YAG while walking around Peking, I noticed a large shop with a bunch of people gathered around service windows. Walked in and the place had very high ceilings and had many ladders where the clerks scaled them and retrieved leaves, plants, roots and other things and brought them down and then put them together and wrapped them in brown paper and tied the paper together.
Then a supervisor person wrote with a paint brush like pen, instructions in Chinese about how to use these items and what to use them for. Fortunately I encountered a group of young Chinese that were studying English and they wanted to practice their new language on me. Then I asked them about what was going on here.
Finally they communicated that I have visited one of the largest pharmacies in China.
Years later there were articles about how research people from the USA and Europe were investigating how these ancient remedies worked.
For a living I sell huge unit dose packaging machines that are required by US law for inpatients in hospitals to help prevent giving the wrong med to their patients. These machines can easily package several million unit dose packages per year.
IMHO the bigger problem lies with meds proscribed for home use. Physicians are expected to do something for their out patients and giving them a prescription satisfied that need for all.
Then a supervisor person wrote with a paint brush like pen, instructions in Chinese about how to use these items and what to use them for. Fortunately I encountered a group of young Chinese that were studying English and they wanted to practice their new language on me. Then I asked them about what was going on here.
Finally they communicated that I have visited one of the largest pharmacies in China.
Years later there were articles about how research people from the USA and Europe were investigating how these ancient remedies worked.
For a living I sell huge unit dose packaging machines that are required by US law for inpatients in hospitals to help prevent giving the wrong med to their patients. These machines can easily package several million unit dose packages per year.
IMHO the bigger problem lies with meds proscribed for home use. Physicians are expected to do something for their out patients and giving them a prescription satisfied that need for all.
3
Nature prevails. ("If you can't beat them, join them.")
2
Nature is indeed a superchemist. Traditional medical systems like Ayurveda and TCM have always respected, understood, and wisely utilized plants and nature as a whole for therapeutic purposes, keeping populations healthy for millennia. Plants and their unique biochemistry, medicinal or otherwise, are products of terrain, climate, air quality, soil, etc. Traditional medical systems have a deep understanding of this - a medical plant growing in the Himalayas is different in action than one growing in the hot plains south of the mountains.
This 'discovery' by Western scientists is a double-edged sword. While there is hope for millions through the portal of science, the natural world is at peril - the last sentence of this article sums it up - 'Grab as much as you can!'. Until we run out! Or mega-corporations find a way to mass-cultivate and patent plants as medicines, that were free from nature!
This 'discovery' by Western scientists is a double-edged sword. While there is hope for millions through the portal of science, the natural world is at peril - the last sentence of this article sums it up - 'Grab as much as you can!'. Until we run out! Or mega-corporations find a way to mass-cultivate and patent plants as medicines, that were free from nature!
7
Add this to your information on Artemesia annua. The WHO, strongly influenced by allopathic thinking , took this beautiful plant, extracted the molecules which had the most active anti-protozoan ingredients and turned it into Artimesinen, which is so strong, it produces toxicity in 4 days of IV therapy and has to be discontinued. I have used Qing Hao, (Artemesia annua) daily, as a water extracted freeze dried powder for as long as 13 years with AIDS patients in the 1980s and 90s, in NYC, WITHOUT any serious negative side-effects...also, no giardia, toxoplasmosis, the big killer: pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, all protozoan caused illnesses, in addition to malaria and other diseases It is also wonderful for dogs who have parasitic protozoan conditions.
Herbal remedies need to be given as an herbalist would give them, as teas, water extractions, capsules, raw herbal decoctions when necessary, for them to be safe and effective. They should not be turned into 21st century
pharma-poisons. They are a precious resource and need to be protected from over harvesting as well. But, guess what...there isn't too much of a profit to be made from them, because they are not patented..no need. What is needed is EDUCATION, continued Board Certification and credentialing in Herbal Medicine, and more respect for it all and for those of us who have been practicing this for 30+ years. Time for the "first' world to wake-up.
Herbal remedies need to be given as an herbalist would give them, as teas, water extractions, capsules, raw herbal decoctions when necessary, for them to be safe and effective. They should not be turned into 21st century
pharma-poisons. They are a precious resource and need to be protected from over harvesting as well. But, guess what...there isn't too much of a profit to be made from them, because they are not patented..no need. What is needed is EDUCATION, continued Board Certification and credentialing in Herbal Medicine, and more respect for it all and for those of us who have been practicing this for 30+ years. Time for the "first' world to wake-up.
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The article about Quave's work at Emory brought to mind work that was
done at the University of Pittsburgh in the 20th century along similar
lines but with different botanical sources. The Pitt researchers were
aided by local members of the American Herbalogical Society whose
knowledge of many of the species involved contributed to the
researchers' own.
done at the University of Pittsburgh in the 20th century along similar
lines but with different botanical sources. The Pitt researchers were
aided by local members of the American Herbalogical Society whose
knowledge of many of the species involved contributed to the
researchers' own.
4
What a superb article! Thank you for publishing it.
4
This is an interesting article, but this field is older than indicated. Any pharmacist educated in the 1970's and earlier will recall the subject of pharmacognosy being taught. Pharmacognosy deals with the science of natural compounds, commonly, but not exclusively, from plants. My alma mater, University of Illinois College of Pharmacy, had a famous and well funded Department of Pharmacognosy. Remnants of that program still exists in Chicago. It seems that the secrets are there, we just need to find them. Where will the next generation of scientists come from?
6
A lot of diseases & illnesses are unknown & doctors just have a standard common format for diagnosing.If a doctor just guesses what is wrong with you,without getting tests done,then they are prescribing you antibiotics or a commonly prescribed drug that is ineffective. If you look up most drugs success rate on the internet, they are under 50%. Lots of overprescribed drugs that make the drug companies wealthy end up being flushed down the toilet & go into landfills.Doctors prescribe drugs like they are lollies & its the government or Insurance Companies that are paying.There's lots of drugs out there that should be withdrawn from the market because of their low success rate in treating the patient.It's time some organisation,or the government made a law so as to take all medications without a reasonable success rate off the market then drug companies would be forced to up their game & deliver medications to the public that delivered results.Any other company that didn't perform well or didn't have a success rate would be put out of business so why not drug companies with low success rate products for the patient.
I had the experience mentioned above & am treating myself successfully with Bio-Curcumin for unknown auto immune disease that is not contagious or a virus;( previously treated with drugs & medications that showed a low success rate when googled.) I paid for biopsy Specialist 2nd opinion myself. Dr was prescribing drugs for something I never had, according to biopsy.
I had the experience mentioned above & am treating myself successfully with Bio-Curcumin for unknown auto immune disease that is not contagious or a virus;( previously treated with drugs & medications that showed a low success rate when googled.) I paid for biopsy Specialist 2nd opinion myself. Dr was prescribing drugs for something I never had, according to biopsy.
2
Thank you to Dr. Quave for working to get out ahead of the burgeoning problems of antibiotic resistance. That the pharmaceutical companies are not researching and developing new antibiotic drugs because, ".................... of the disappointment of synthetic chemistry as an engine for discovery but also because antibiotics are simply less profitable than drugs for more persistent conditions like cancer, depression and high cholesterol" is beyond immoral.
It is heartening to read that there are also a few biotech firms working to save us from a catastrophic reversal to the time before antibiotics. Many if not most Americans alive today do not recall how simple infections would kill. The U.S. Government should be doing all that it can to underwrite and support the research of Dr. Quave and her colleagues.
It is heartening to read that there are also a few biotech firms working to save us from a catastrophic reversal to the time before antibiotics. Many if not most Americans alive today do not recall how simple infections would kill. The U.S. Government should be doing all that it can to underwrite and support the research of Dr. Quave and her colleagues.
8
I hope she goes to Bulgaria soon. The plant life there is less disturbed than Albania and Kosovo and its micro climates would possibly offer some unique plants. And getting research outside the U.S. has some benefits both to such regions and in faster development. Plant cures have more respect in much of Eastern Europe. Now if we can just get the crackpot du jour off the Internet with false panaceas and muscle building sugar pills.
4
Excellent news. One truly hope this kind of research expands and uncovers for us cures from mother nature rather than big pharma. I suspect the inability to patent nature must play a role in big pharma's refusal to research alternative treatments.
2
Powdered Rhinoceros horn is an excellent cure for a whole range of ailments, some cultural traditions believe. Except it isn't, but Rhinos are still being driven into extinction, along with a host of other species with no medicinal value that are being slaughtered to provide quack non-cures. Best of luck searching for value among traditional knowledge, just remember that it, like modern science, can be disastrously wrong.
10
And Traditional Chinese Medicine has a substitute for rhinoceros horn to treat the same conditions. Go see a TCM specialist to learn what the substitute is. Get some actual knowledge before you denigrate a medical philosophy you don't understand.
2
Now you find out. After years and years of western colonialists banning ancient remedies as primitive, western press calling them unscientific...now in 2016 you finally write a column?
My physician mother who is now 89, wrote to the WHO in the 1970s when she was alarmed to see how antibiotics were prescribed so easily by physicians, for just coughs and colds. She warned at that time indiscriminate use of antibiotics would cause drug resistance and the bacteria would evolve to newer untreatable species. She shared her vision and foresight with young doctors who were quick to treat illnesses without establishing viral of bacterial origin and because of pressure from patients for quick and speedy solutions.
My physician mother who is now 89, wrote to the WHO in the 1970s when she was alarmed to see how antibiotics were prescribed so easily by physicians, for just coughs and colds. She warned at that time indiscriminate use of antibiotics would cause drug resistance and the bacteria would evolve to newer untreatable species. She shared her vision and foresight with young doctors who were quick to treat illnesses without establishing viral of bacterial origin and because of pressure from patients for quick and speedy solutions.
30
This article illustrates the human obsession with technological fixes, rather than changing our behavior (i.e., not abusing the use of antibiotics). We would so much prefer just to take a magic pill!
1
Cassy Quave is a great scientist doing important work. There is a short interview of her here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J165JX1ym_c made during the 2015 Atlanta Science Festival
2
I hope Cassandra Quave and others like her will persist in their research on plant based medicines. Decades ago I wrote my senior thesis on Curanderismo. It was difficult to find material for the research. Much of what I did find was so hostile, not only to "folk medicine", but especially to the idea of using plants for healing. One piece of writing referred to the use of herbs as belonging to the "dark, cruel world of ignorance". Oh, well. I always have an aloe vera plant on hand for burns.
5
Excellent article. But it makes me think of the recent action of the DEA to make kratom a Schedule 1 drug. Kratom is nature's best pain-reliever. It attaches to the mu receptors, like opioids do, but doesn't have the risky side-effects. It doesn't suppress breathing, for one thing. It gives a mellow feeling, much like a good cup of coffee or tea, instead of a dangerous high. And it's impossible to overdose on. If you take too much, you simply throw up.
I hope the DEA doesn't outlaw these valuable antibiotics as well. But the big pharma companies may not like the competition. So I'm not holding my breath.
I hope the DEA doesn't outlaw these valuable antibiotics as well. But the big pharma companies may not like the competition. So I'm not holding my breath.
14
It's not just the supposed influence of Big Pharma that leads the FDA to cast a skeptical eye at botanical remedies; the drawbacks cited, namely difficult production processes and EXTREMELY difficult standardization are real problems that need real solutions, before a product can be brought to market. If a synthetic drug had a high risk of contamination and every bottle had a different dosage of the active ingredient, the FDA would immediately reject it, and if it was on the market already, issue a recall.
Botanical drugs are no more or less inherently harmful than synthetic drugs (in fact, some of our most potent poisons come from plants.) An inability to deliver a consistent dosage leads to inefficacy on one end, or whatever side effects the drug causes on the other.
Botanical drugs are no more or less inherently harmful than synthetic drugs (in fact, some of our most potent poisons come from plants.) An inability to deliver a consistent dosage leads to inefficacy on one end, or whatever side effects the drug causes on the other.
4
Another reason the FDA does not approve biological mixtures is because when taking any medication the potential risk versus probable benefit always needs to be carefully weighed. It follows that if a given component of a mixture does not provide any benefit, then no level of risk is acceptable; and it should therefore not be a part of the medication.
risk versus benefit
risk versus benefit
3
"Could...?"
The answer HAS to be yes, even if it ridiculously unlikely.
I almost NEVER read such articles, because of such 'cheesy' titles.
If is actually a thoughtful article with interesting facts connected by a logic chain to deliver insights to the reader, it deserves a better title.
Please consider that for the future.
Stephen Rinsler, MD
The answer HAS to be yes, even if it ridiculously unlikely.
I almost NEVER read such articles, because of such 'cheesy' titles.
If is actually a thoughtful article with interesting facts connected by a logic chain to deliver insights to the reader, it deserves a better title.
Please consider that for the future.
Stephen Rinsler, MD
4
A fascinating and beautiful read. All the best to Dr Quave and her mission. (PS: New York Times, please put the names of all plants in their Latin names too. I am guessing that the plantago mentioned at the end of the article is: Plantago Coronopus.)
5
Ironic that the more we move away from nature the more we find we need to stay close to it because it and we have evolved together. But we refuse to do some of the more sensible things that might limit diseases: make birth control widely available without the restrictions on abortion thereby helping to stop the overcrowding of the planet, limiting or eliminating the use of antibiotics in healthy animals, cleaning up after ourselves, not turning the planet into a giant cesspool by allowing corporations to pollute the air, the soil, the water, and everything else without cleaning it up once they're finished. And we should not be chopping down tropical forests because driving plants into extinction might mean we lose something that helps to control or cure something like Zika, Ebola, or malaria. We evolved with this planet, not against it. It's interesting to note that the synthesized version of a treatment for malaria is not as effective as the natural treatment. In other words, the active ingredient is part of what's needed, not all of it. We would be wise to preserve much more of our planet than we do. And it would also benefit us to give more credit to "primitive" people who do not have access to modern medicine.
189
The use of antibiotics in factory farms is unnecessary. A year or so ago NPR had a story on research showing that keeping groups of baby pigs together as they grew and keeping their stalls clean (what a concept!) produced healthy adults that were as large as their antibiotic fed peers. It is also cheaper. It cost less to keep them clean than to treat them with medications.
I don't even like to think of the filthy conditions in which factory farms keep their livestock. We need to get rid of that type of "farming".
I don't even like to think of the filthy conditions in which factory farms keep their livestock. We need to get rid of that type of "farming".
2
Plants contain a huge array of unique and vastly diverse chemicals, and their study and identification have very important implications for human medicine, but not exactly in the way alluded to in the article. It is very unlikely that you will find a chemical or chemicals in the plants that has a direct application to human medicine and disease, but rather it is the vast array of diverse chemicals themselves which are more critical. Nearly every day advances are being made in our understanding of how the human body works and in the etiology of human disease. Often new assays that did not previously exist are developed in conjunction with our improved knowledge. It is critically important therefore to have available as large and diverse a chemically library as possible to screen in these newly developed assays. The more chemicals available, the greater diversity available, the more likely it is to find compounds that are active in these assays. Once activity is discovered, the active compound can serve as the starting point for the development of a new drug or as a tool to further explore the mechanism of the human body and human disease. In the end, it is very likely that it is the supply of diverse chemicals themselves which will prove to be more important, rather than actually finding a new drug directly. But in any event, the more we know is always for the better.
36