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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006>Trish,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006>I agree that the UIC team is more trustworthy, but
their study is in vitro and results of in vitro studies do not always translate
into in vivo results (look at how many phony "herb-drug interaction" alarms have
been raised through the use of petri-dish studies). However, there's
further reason to question the results of the human trial here. Firstly,
there are a LOT of studies showing that black cohosh reduces hot flashes or
total menopausal symptoms; a clear majority of trials have been
positive. Some people have a nasty habit of pretending that if
15 European studies are positive and one American study is negative, the
question has been completely resolved -- with a negative answer! The
mainstream media invariably fall in line with this spin. When the
researchers themselves push this outlook, as appears to be the case here,
this demonstrates bias that warrants going over their study with a
fine-tooth comb.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006>Firstly, this "Wiklund Menopause Symptom" scale is
not commonly used. Many studies of black cohosh have
used the Kupperman Index, which is also used for tests of pharmaceutical
drugs. If you look these two things up in PubMed, you will find that there
are several studies of menopause with Wiklund as one of the authors (mostly
using scales with different names, according to the abstracts); the ONLY
study that has Wiklund in the abstract but not the authors' list is this
study. The only Googled references to "Wiklund Menopause Symptom," in
quotes, refer to this study. Compare that to "Kupperman Index" with
respectively 143 PubMed-listed scientific papers and almost 10,000 Google
hits. Suppose that you do not really care to find an effect -- it
would certainly help to use a poorly validated rating scale that might
be less sensitive than the usual scales, or might give higher
"placebo effect" answers.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006>I don't have access to the article, but someone
has summarized a few of the results online. At three months,
frequency of vasomotor symptoms declined 35% with black cohosh, 15% with
multibotanical, 30% with multibotanical plus soy, 21% with placebo, and 88% with
hormone therapy. We are told that the difference between "herbal
supplements" (which?) and placebo was 0.6 hot flashes per day. A "global
test for herbs and placebo" gave P=.10. Other measures showed trends
toward the herbs but were farther from being significant. The media
version is that everything was the same except that the multibotanical plus soy
at 12 months was significantly worse than placebo. Now, P=.10 does
not show that the above superiority of herbs over placebo is real, but it
certainly doesn't prove that there is no effect either! With a larger
sample size, the same effect might have been significant at P=.05. At
least, the commentary has been misleading.
</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006>Also, someone with access to the paper might look into
material sourcing and quality. Was a fingerprint provided? Was the
source provided? Did they show that levels of suspected active compounds
were adequate? Using crummy material (as in the recent highly touted
Echinacea angustifolia study, with no detectable echinacoside, and 30% of the
recommended dose on top of that) is a great way to reduce the effect size.
I'm not implying that they would deliberately go out and look for
lousy material, but if you are operating under the belief that
no herbal product will (or should) be effective, you don't put much
effort into ensuring product quality either. This study was funded
before the new NCCAM guidelines required researchers to demonstrate product
composition.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=544112616-21122006>Wendy</SPAN></FONT></DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> mpwg-bounces@lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:mpwg-bounces@lists.plantconservation.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Trish
Flaster<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, December 21, 2006 10:13 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
McCoy, Joe-Ann<BR><B>Cc:</B>
mpwg@lists.plantconservation.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [MPWG] A positive
black cohosh study 12/7/2006 - Black Cohosh(Actaea racemosa,Cimicifuga
racemosa) Behaves as a Mixed Competitive Ligand andPartial Agonist at the
Human Opiate Receptor<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><!-- Converted from text/enriched format -->
<DIV>It is a pleasure that you sent this as this scientific team spent years
looking at all the species of cohosh and other plants to understanding the
mechanism activity of black cohosh. I trust this work a lot more than others.
</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Trish </DIV>
<DIV>On Thursday, December 21, 2006, at 07:29 AM, McCoy, Joe-Ann wrote:
</DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>FYI: A positive black cohosh study which came out 2 weeks ago but
didn't receive the press' attention. Just to even out the
uncertainty......... </DIV><BR>
<DIV>http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jafcau/2006/54/i26/abs/jf062808u.html
</DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>J. Agric. Food Chem., 54 (26), 9852 -9857, 2006. 10.1021/jf062808u
S0021-8561(06)02808-1 </DIV>
<DIV>December 7, 2006 </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa, Cimicifuga racemosa) Behaves as a Mixed
Competitive Ligand and Partial Agonist at the Human Opiate Receptor
</DIV><BR>
<DIV>Mee-Ra Rhyu,# Jian Lu, Donna E. Webster, Daniel S. Fabricant, Norman R.
Farnsworth, and Z. Jim Wang* </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, UIC/NIH Center for
Botanical Dietary Supplements Research and Program for Collaborative
Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Department of Biopharmaceutical
Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois
60612 </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Abstract: </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Black cohosh is a commonly used botanical dietary supplement for the
treatment of climacteric complaints. Because the opiate system in the brain
is intimately associated with mood, temperature, and sex hormonal levels,
the activity of black cohosh extracts at the human opiate receptor (hMOR)
expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells was investigated. The 100%
methanol, 75% ethanol, and 40% 2-propanol extracts of black cohosh
effectively displaced the specific binding of [3H]DAMGO to hMOR. Further
studies of the clinically used ethanol extract indicated that black cohosh
acted as a mixed competitive ligand, displacing 77 ± 4% [3H]DAMGO to hMOR
(Ki = 62.9 g/mL). Using the [35S]GTPS assay, the action of black cohosh was
found to be consistent with an agonist, with an EC50 of 68.8 ± 7.7 g/mL.
These results demonstrate for the first time that black cohosh contains
active principle(s) that activate hMOR, supporting its beneficial role in
alleviating menopausal symptoms. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Keywords: Black cohosh; menopause; hot flashes; opiate; botanical
dietary supplement </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Received for review October 1, 2006. Accepted October 24, 2006. This
publication was funded by the following grants: AT003476 from the National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Office of
Dietary Supplements (ODS); AT000155 jointly provided to the UIC/NIH Center
for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research by the ODS, the NCCAM, the Office
for Research on Women's Health, and the National Institute for General
Medical Sciences; and DA005050 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
D.E.W. is supported by an NIH predoctoral fellowship (F31AT002669). J.L. is
a University Fellow. The contents are solely the responsibility of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NCCAM,
NIDA, or the National Institutes of Health. </DIV><BR>
<DIV>Joe-Ann McCoy, Ph.D. </DIV>
<DIV>USDA-ARS Medicinal Plant Curator </DIV>
<DIV>North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station </DIV>
<DIV>G212 Agronomy Hall </DIV>
<DIV>Iowa State University </DIV>
<DIV>Ames, Iowa 50011-1170 </DIV>
<DIV>USA </DIV>
<DIV>phone: 515-294-2297 </DIV>
<DIV>fax: 515-294-1903 </DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>_______________________________________________ </DIV>
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</DIV><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face=Helvetica>Trish Flaster </DIV>
<DIV>Executive Director </DIV>
<DIV>Botanical Liaisons, LLC </DIV>
<DIV>1180 Crestmoor Drive </DIV>
<DIV>Boulder, CO 80303 </DIV>
<DIV>303-494-1555, 303-494-2555 fax </DIV>
<DIV>www.botanicalliaisons.com </DIV>
<DIV></FONT><TT><FONT color=#006600></DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT color=#060308>Authenticated</FONT> voucher specimens, a
pressed plant reference tool, accompanied by the economically valuable dried
plant part that is characterized by TLC or microscopy. See a listing on the
website or make special requests</TT> </DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>