Herbal Treatments for Erectile Dysfunction

Evidence for herbal treatments for ED is contradictory. This could be due
to differing definitions of ED, non-standardized outcomes and different procedures
used in the preparation of plant extracts.

Additionally, animal studies are not accurate because they do not allow cerebral aspects of sex to be evaluated and instead rely solely on basic mechanical or instinctive sexual function.

Preliminary research on a few drugs such as ginseng, PLC and DHEA is encouraging,
but well-designed randomized controlled clinical trials are lacking.

It is likely that the use of medicinal plants will increase in popularity as men seek subtle
methods of treating themselves.

However, whilst it is easy to purchase many ‘natural Viagra’-like substances over the Internet, the safety and reliability of many of these drugs is poor, and patients should be cautious when acquiring these products.

Information about how these herbal products interact with prescribed drugs is also
limited.

Ginseng and Male Sexual Behavior

Ginseng is widely used in Asian countries as a tonic to promote and maintain good health and as a constituent in herbal medicines used to treat various diseases, including liver dysfunction, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, postmenopausal symptoms, and impotence.

Very few controlled clinical studies have been performed to validate the medicinal use of ginseng
or its constituents in humans. However, laboratory studies, primarily using rodents, have elucidated potential medical uses for ginseng and ginsenosides in the treatment of a number of human disorders, including impotence and loss of libido.

Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius have both been shown to enhance male copulatory behavior in laboratory studies. Human studies have suggested that ginseng ingestion may be a safe and effective alternative method for treatment of erectile dysfunction. Ginsenosides have been shown to interact with steroid receptors and, through nongenomic pathways, activate NO production.

How ginseng and its ginsenosides may act centrally to modulate sexual desire and copulatory performance is not known, but could potentially involve activation of NO pathways, perhaps in
brain areas involved in sexual behavior.

Indigenous People and Forests: Perspectives of an Ethnobotanical Study from Rajasthan (India)

The state of Rajasthan has a sizable tribal population existing in the still surviving deciduous forests of the Aravalli and Vindhyan ranges. Though having undergone varying degrees of change, a substantial population even today can be seen thriving in primitive conditions with preserved traditions. Of such groups, the Bhils are the largest, followed by Garasias and Damors.

The Kathodias and Sahariyas are still sociologically not very well known. Living close to nature, the tribals have acquired unique knowledge about the properties and uses of wild plants, most of
which are not known to the outside world. Until a decade ago, nothing was known about the ethnobotany of the tribes of Rajasthan.

Exhaustive field work in tribal villages with a macro-level perspective brought forth interesting revelations from the panorama of their lives. The present work highlights useful ethnobotanical information about the uses of wild plants by the tribals of Rajasthan as food, medicine,
veterinary medicine, material culture, etc. This folk wisdom, if subjected to scientific
scrutiny, could benefit humankind in many ways.

The Chemical Diversity of Bioactive Molecules and Therapeutic Potential of Medicinal Plants

The therapeutic use of herbs is as old as human civilization and has evolved along with it. The vast majority of people on this planet still rely on their indigenous system of medicine and use herbal drugs.

The Indian and Chinese systems of medicine are well established with written records going back around 3000 years. Medicinal plant drug discovery continues to provide new and important leads against various pharmacological targets including cancer, malaria, cardiovascular
diseases and neurological disorders.

Interest in herbal drugs and natural medicine is undergoing a renaissance at the present time. The medicinal properties of plants are due to the presence of active principles. These bioactive secondary metabolites are synthesized by two principal pathways: shikimic acid or aromatic amino acid, and mevalonic acid. Alkaloids, phenolics and terpenoids constitute many pharmacologically active compounds. Several natural-product drugs of plant origin have either
recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including
arteether, galanthamine and triotopium, or are in clinical trials.

Although drug discovery from medicinal plants continues to provide an important source of new drug leads, this work is constrained by the unavailability of sufficient plant material, selection
and implementation of appropriate high-throughput screening bioassay and the production of bioactive compounds in large quantities. This article reviews the use of herbs in traditional systems and bioactive therapeutic molecules responsible for this activity.

Medicinal Plants: A Renewable Resource for Novel Leads and Drugs

Present-day drug development is strongly focused on finding active compounds on well-defined targets using high throughput screening approaches.

Unfortunately it seems that this approach is becoming less and less successful, as
in most cases already good compounds are on the market, and the rapidly rising
costs of drug development will make it increasingly difficult to make an economically
competitive novel drug for any major disease.

In other words, the reductionist approach presently used is becoming less successful. The time has come to rethink drug development. Many Western medicines are based on traditional knowledge from Europe and the Mediteranean region. This is why interest is rapidly increasing
in Indian and Chinese medicine, both of which represent a very long tradition
of apparently safe use.

However, these healthcare systems are different from Western medicine, so novel methods are required to verify the efficacy and safety of the therapies. As it often concerns personalized medication with complex mixtures, a reductionist approach of screening for a single active compound on a known target will in many cases not be successful, as more than one target may be involved; in addition, and complicating the situation even more, synergism and prodrugs may be involved. Systems biology as a novel holistic way of dealing with biological problems
seems here an interesting option.

Systems biology means proceeding without a hypothesis, just observing, measuring as many parameters as possible in a biological system and afterwards using chemometrics to reveal any meaning in the data. This approach has already proven successful in studying medicinal plants and, in combination with the classical natural-product-based drug lead finding, is expected
to be a major issue in the coming years.

As present-day patent laws require innovative and unexpected findings, the development of old knowledge does not fit this requirement. Therefore, to support the development of evidence-based traditional medicines, it would be of great interest if some sort of protection could be obtained for companies developing such medicines so that they could earn back their huge R&D investments.