Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Part of any study for any natural product is the isolation and standardization of the active alkaloid. You would not have a very good study if you did not have standardized doses.
When we find a product that shows promise (red yeast rice gave us statins, foxglove gave us digoxin, white willow bark gave us aspirin, Etc,), you have to find out what the active alkaloid is, or how would you test it? Two plants of the exact same species are not likely to produce the same amount of each alkaloid, therefore you have to standardize to have reasonable results our each dose would be different.
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A lot of it is done on lab rats, just like any other drugs. If it works on rats, then the feasibility study of extracting the acting agent or synthesizing it is done. Once that is complete, you start testing on humans. Initially to determine if there see any unwanted side effects and then later to determine how effective it is.
You are correct that each plant has a different amount of the compound. This can be standardised to be relatively close if necessary. But really, why would a company spend money on human trials before determining if they could actually synthesize it cost effectively? Humans will sue. Lab rats don't. I often wonder how many products never make it to market due to adverse side effects that prevent the product from being sold. Some don't even make it to the human testing stage because of adverse side effects in animals already.
The animal testing part is what I would call looking into a plant. The process of ensuring its safe for humans, testing its effectiveness, etc is the part that doesn't happen on an alternative medicine remedy, but on a component of it.