[MPWG] Botanicals today - real or synthesized?

[JPS Kohli]

Just a few random thoughts....

Going deeper into specifics like from raw herb to herb extract to individual phytochemicals, the line between natural and synthetic becomes extremely blurred. Take the case of Vitamin E. The synthetic form is known as Tocopheryl acetate. While a product containing "Natural Vitamin E" contains an extract from many plants (chiefly soybean cake after oil has been expressed) actually contains "Mixed tocopherols" in varying fractions. As per various clinical studies conducted, the pharmacological action (many of them have been attributed) is significantly better of mixed tocopherols rather than just the acetate form. Similar studies are being reported off and on regarding many more herbs where frequently it has been observed that a whole herb extract has provided better clinical results than phytochemicals. Thus, my premise is that once we get to the phytochemical part in a herb, we are really talking chemistry here instead of herbs.

Secondly, rather than botanical products containing synthetics (this is defined as adulteration per my standards), the other is becoming far more popular. While bioprospecting by the pharmaceutical companies has been known for quite some time, where the pharmaceutical industry is looking for leads to new molecules from such herbal medicines, there is an active trend in research to produce conventional pharmaceuticals in plants due to the complexity of enzymatic reactions available in plants. A visit to this website http://www.plantpharma.org/ will provide a good perspective on this field. Therefore the synthetics are also now on the verge of becoming "natural" (at least in origin).

So much flip-flop from natural to synthetic to natural to ....................

If all this is making you feel dizzy, just do what I am doing now - having a hot cup of ginger tea.

J P S Kohli (B. Pharm)
Business Horizons
Pharmaceutical Publishers
G-59, Masjid Moth, GK-2
New Delhi - 110 048, INDIA

Ph: (91) 921206 1554
Fax: (91-11) 5163 7296
US Fax: 1 (815) 642 4900

E-Mail: info at businesshorizons.com
Alternate: businesshorizons at yahoo.com
Web Site: http://www.businesshorizons.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/mpwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20051122/6f0e7d36/attachment.html>