ScienceDaily
(Oct. 30, 2007) — Scientists in the United Kingdom have "decoded" the inscrutable
language of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), revealing its strong chemical
foundation in a way that may help scientists mine age-old Chinese medicines
to develop tomorrow's new drugs.
David J. Barlow,
Thomas M. Ehrman, and Peter J. Hylands point out that traditional Chinese
medicine (TCM) - regarded by many Western experts as an archaic system
doomed to extinction 50 years ago - has undergone a "remarkable renaissance"
in recent years.
However, the
arcane language used to describe categories of medication in TCM has hindered
effective understanding of one of the most developed and mature systems
of alternative medicine in existence.
To overcome
that barrier, the researchers analyzed patterns among 8411 compounds from
240 Chinese herbs in relation to the categories found in traditional Chinese
medicine. Organizing their findings in a kind of herbal "map," their results
reveal that many categories in Chinese medicine are amenable to translation
to Western terminology. TCM's "fire poison" group, for example, is comparable
to today's family of anti-inflammatory medicines.
Now, future
researchers will better understand the chemical basis of remedies that
have been in use for thousands of years, the study indicated.
"This is likely
to be of benefit both in the search for new drugs and, equally significantly,
in understanding how Chinese medicine works," say the authors.
The study is
"Phytochemical Informatics of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Therapeutic
Relevance" is scheduled for the Nov./Dec. issue of ACS' Journal of Chemical
Information and Modeling.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com
Adapted from materials provided
by American Chemical Society.