The nutraceuticals market is vast, encompassing many different products with inconsistent levels of evidence available to support their use. This overview represents a Western perspective of the ...nutraceuticals market, with a brief comparison with that in China, as an illustration of how individual health supplements increase and decrease in popularity in regional terms. Recent changes in sales patterns, mainly taken from the US market, are summarized and a selection of five newer products, which have not been subject to extensive recent review are profiled: astaxanthin, a carotenoid found in red algae, seafood, salmon and trout, as an antioxidant; cannabidiol, a non‐euphoric marijuana ingredient used as mood enhancer and for painful/inflammatory conditions; modified extracts of ginseng used in new indications including dementia and space travel; monk fruit, a non‐sugar high intensity sweetener and nigella seed, a popular food ingredient and Asian medicine, which has experienced an extraordinary rise in sales recently.
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This article is part of a themed section on The Pharmacology of Nutraceuticals. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v177.6/issuetoc
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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This article is part of a themed section on Principles of Pharmacological Research of Nutraceuticals. To view the other articles in this section visit ...http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v174.11/issuetoc
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Milk thistle (MT; Silybum marianum), a member of the Asteraceae family, is a therapeutic herb with a 2,000‐year history of use. MT fruits contain a mixture of flavonolignans collectively known as ...silymarin, being silybin (also named silibinin) the main component. This article reviews the chemistry of MT, the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability, the pharmacologically relevant actions for liver diseases (e.g., anti‐inflammatory, immunomodulating, antifibrotic, antioxidant, and liver‐regenerating properties) as well as the clinical potential in patients with alcoholic liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, drug‐induced liver injury, and mushroom poisoning. Overall, literature data suggest that, despite encouraging preclinical data, further well‐designed randomized clinical trials are needed to fully substantiate the real value of MT preparations in liver diseases.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This review gives an updated picture of each class of phenolic compounds and their properties. The most common classification implies the subdivision of phenolics in two main groups: flavonoids ...(e.g., anthocyanins, flavanols, flavanones, flavonols, flavonones, and isoflavones) and non‐flavonoids (e.g., phenolic acids, xanthones, stilbens, lignans, and tannins) polyphenols. The great interest in polyphenols is associated with their high potential application for food preservation and for therapeutic beneficial use. The relationship between polyphenol intake and human health has been exploited with special reference to cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and cancer. The use of current existing databases of bioactive compounds including polyphenols is described as key tools for human health research.
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The pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacokinetics of bioactive preparations derived from natural sources has become a flourishing field of research. However, researching complex extracts and natural ...products faces numerous challenges. More broadly in recent years the critique of pharmacological research, and specifically its design, the methods used and reporting has intensified.
This consensus document provides a perspective on what constitutes best practice in pharmacological research on bioactive preparations derived from natural sources, providing a perspective of what the leading specialist journals in the field consider as the core characteristics of good research.
The editors-in-chief of seven journals developed this best practice statement in an iterative process. A first draft of the guidelines (prepared by MH) was then discussed and amended by the other editors.
Core to this contribution is a table which provides detailed advice including simple points like a use of appropriate controls and the full taxonomic validity of the material under investigation (see also below), to the relevance of the model for the question being researched (e.g., can specific in silico or in vitro models really address the species anti-inflammatory activity?). Therefore, obviously, researchers must pay detailed attention to reporting and discussing such studies. This information must be discussed critically (as much as it is possible based on the published papers) in terms of their scientific quality and validity. While these points are obvious, as editors, we are aware that they are often not properly implemented.
We call for an approach which incorporates a careful design, meticulous execution and a detailed reporting of studies focusing on the pharmacology/bioactivity of bioactive preparations. Clearly testable research questions must be developed and investigated experimentally. As the founder of pharmacology Claude Bernard put it already in 1865: ‘…. either the experimenter's hypothesis will be disproved or it will be proved by experiment. When experiment disproves its preconceived ideas, the experimenter must discard or modify it.‘
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Nowadays, obesity is one of the most prevalent human health problems. Research from the last 30 years has clarified the role of the imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, unhealthy ...lifestyle, and genetic variability in the development of obesity. More recently, the composition and metabolic functions of gut microbiota have been proposed as being able to affect obesity development. Here, we will report the current knowledge on the definition, composition, and functions of intestinal microbiota. We have performed an extensive review of the literature, searching for the following keywords: metabolism, gut microbiota, dysbiosis, obesity. There is evidence for the association between gut bacteria and obesity both in infancy and in adults. There are several genetic, metabolic, and inflammatory pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the interplay between gut microbes and obesity. Microbial changes in the human gut can be considered a factor involved in obesity development in humans. The modulation of the bacterial strains in the digestive tract can help to reshape the metabolic profile in the human obese host as suggested by several data from animal and human studies. Thus, a deep revision of the evidence pertaining to the use probiotics, prebiotics, and antibiotics in obese patients is conceivable.
Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol binds cannabinoid (CB1 and CB2 ) receptors, which are activated by endogenous compounds (endocannabinoids) and are involved in a wide range of physiopathological processes ...(e.g. modulation of neurotransmitter release, regulation of pain perception, and of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and liver functions). The well-known psychotropic effects of Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol, which are mediated by activation of brain CB1 receptors, have greatly limited its clinical use. However, the plant Cannabis contains many cannabinoids with weak or no psychoactivity that, therapeutically, might be more promising than Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol. Here, we provide an overview of the recent pharmacological advances, novel mechanisms of action, and potential therapeutic applications of such non-psychotropic plant-derived cannabinoids. Special emphasis is given to cannabidiol, the possible applications of which have recently emerged in inflammation, diabetes, cancer, affective and neurodegenerative diseases, and to Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabivarin, a novel CB1 antagonist which exerts potentially useful actions in the treatment of epilepsy and obesity.
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