Shedding New Light On Medicinal Benefits Of Plants

www.medicalnewstoday.com...

Scientists from institutions around the nation and the world have collaborated to develop new resources poised to unlock yet another door in the hidden garden of medicinally important compounds found in plants.

The resources were developed by the Medicinal Plant Consortium (MPC) led by Joe Chappell, professor of plant biochemistry at the University of Kentucky, Dean DellaPenna, professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University and Sarah O'Connor, professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England. They grew out of a $6 million initiative from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how plants produce the rich diversity of chemical compounds, some of which are medicinally important.

"Our major goal in this project has been to capture the genetic blueprints of medicinal plants for the advancement of drug discovery and development," said Chappell, project coordinator for the MPC.

"Most people are familiar with the natural products we derive from plants," Chappell added. "These include the delightful fragrances that go into perfumes, soaps, household cleaning products and more. Just as the sensory properties of plants interact with and trigger your sense of smell, plants' natural compounds can target and cause a reaction within your body. This gives them tremendous pharmaceutical potential."

The MPC project includes participants from Michigan State, Iowa State University, the University of Mississippi, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, MIT, and the John Innes Centre, in addition to UK. The associated researchers represent a broad spectrum of expertise from plant biology and systematics to analytical chemistry, genetics and molecular biology, and drug development from natural products.

DellaPenna, MPC co-project coordinator, said, "Thanks to the funding received for these projects, the talents and skills of experts from all of these institutions have been brought together with the goal of forging a new model in drug discovery."

Some well-known medicines have come from plants. For instance, the foxglove plant gives us the cardiac muscle stimulant digoxin, and the periwinkle plant offers a source for the widely used chemotherapy drugs vincristine and vinblastine. These and many other medicinal plants, often commonly found in household gardens and flower boxes, represent cornucopias of compounds ripe for discovering and developing diverse medicinal applications.

"The current understanding of the molecules and genes involved in the formation of plant-derived medicinal compounds is very incomplete. However, the ability to conduct genome-wide studies of model plant species has resulted in an explosive increase in our knowledge of and capacity to understand the biological processes," added O'Connor, also an MPC co-project coordinator.

During this two-year project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), researchers from two consortia set out to develop a collection of data that would aid in understanding how plants make chemicals, a process called biosynthesis. This knowledge ultimately could make it possible to engineer plants to produce larger quantities of medicinally useful compounds as well as different versions with other therapeutic potential.

To develop the resources, the researchers studied the genes and chemical composition of 14 plants known for their medicinal properties or compounds with biological activity. These included plants such as foxglove, ginseng, and periwinkle. Altogether, these efforts are now providing a rich toolbox for researchers to discover the means for how nature's chemical diversity is created, thus empowering efforts to uncover new drug candidates and increase the efficacy of existing ones.

The work of the MPC included obtaining materials for all the medicinal plants used in this study. The MPC then determined the plants' chemical profiles and obtained their genetic blueprints to study how genes control the various chemical compositions.

"This work offers a valuable data resource for understanding the genes, enzymes and complex processes responsible for the biosynthesis of important plant-derived drugs," said Warren Jones, who manages this and other research grants in biotechnology at NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, through which the ARRA funds were provided. "The collaborative effort should greatly contribute to our ability to understand and exploit the rich biochemistry found in plants."

We all are aware of the medicinal importance of plants. The biggest problem with this is that the drug industry uses the "blueprint" of the plants in many cases to synthesis the medical properties of the plants. Sometimes, this is completely unnessesary, as the plant itself IS the drug, and further processing or synthesis is not required. The drug industries make large amounts of profit from their use of plants in medicines, and does not allow the plants themselves to be used.....Why?....there just isn't enough profit from something that can grow in your backyard. Of course, sometimes processing or synthesis is required because of toxic properties of the plant.

I don't give a damn what the law says. Im going to grow what i want, when I want, for whoever wants it.

Human kind has been growing their own crops for millennia, whether its for food or medicine. These huge companies have been trying to outlaw and spread propaganda to support their fat pockets for the last hundred years. People aren't even aware that they can grow their own remedies in a garden and have become reliant on big pharma to do the thinking for them.

Enough is enough. Im glad people are doing this research. I just hope the findings are readily available to the public and not tied up in courts by these god forsaken lobbyists.

Grow your own. Damn the laws, its just writing on a piece of paper, an imaginary line. Human god given rights come first in my book. Not some douchebags agenda.

Originally posted by 2turkenstein2

Originally posted by ItsEvolutionBaby
You can't patent a plant.
Was only a matter of time before they tried to weasel their way around that.

Did they mention the hemp plant at all - the killer of all killers?

The medicinal purposes of cannibis are founded throughout history. It even has entire sections in old pharmacutical books dedicated to the medicinal purposes of this plant. I saw where the cannibus oil can be used to treat cancers and many other ailments. But, you can not patent a plant. If it can not be monopolized then it seems there is not intrest in it. Silly me, I always thought that medicine was being developed to help people, not maximize profits.................

Monsanto has patents on many plants actually, so yes plants can be patented. Unfortunately.

www.uspto.gov...

A link on patent guidance especially for plants.

Harm None
Peace

reply to post by amazed


That dang monsanto! Figures!
My apologies - I have been reading that they couldn't be patented, til now.
Thanks for the word.

Aarghh.

******************************** MOD NOTE ********************************

Talking about Medicinal plants, and conspiracies regarding Pharmaceutical Industries is one thing, and perfectly acceptable. The second it turns to the discussion of certain illegal mind-altering plants, the posts will be removed, warnings issued, and the thread possibly closed. Zero-tolerance on this subject means zero-tolerance.

Try not to mention that specific plant on this forum. Although I am an avid supporter, this site has policies against its very mention, even to point out its obvious medicinal value.

Just a heads up brotha.

....See. I should have warned ya earlier.

Anyway. There are many different methods of extracting essential oils, pollen, or individual bio-organisms from every plant. It really does take a sterile lab environment, with the proper equipment to extract at full potential..but it can be done at home. I wish I could be a wall flower in those tests. I want to see what they learn.

Apologies for posting it. In honesty, when speaking of it for its medicinal value, the mind-altering stuff doesn't enter the mind, per its application. Will be aware of it for future.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
******************************** MOD NOTE ********************************

Talking about Medicinal plants, and conspiracies regarding Pharmaceutical Industries is one thing, and perfectly acceptable. The second it turns to the discussion of certain illegal mind-altering plants, the posts will be removed, warnings issued, and the thread possibly closed. Zero-tolerance on this subject means zero-tolerance.

In addition, Just to clarify...
Not only will warnings be issued, but temporary Posting Bans will go into effect.