Medicinal Plants: Urogenital and Gastrointestinal System

Question 1

What is a sapogenins?

Answer 1

A plant species that produces steroidal glycosides that consists of a steroid-like terpenoid with a sugar side chain.
-Removal of side chain in question?

Question 2

Who discovered that removal of side chain was possible?

Answer 2

Russel Marker

Question 3

What does the removal of the side chain from sapogenins do?

Answer 3

Converts sapogenins from rhizomes of wild sarsaparilla, and understory vine native to eastern NA, to the steroidal hormone progesterone.

Question 4

What is progesterone converted into?

Answer 4

Testosterone, oestrogen, and other steroidal hormones.

Question 5

What are the two related plant families of sarsaparilla rhizomes?

Answer 5

Lilies and yams-apparently produce large amounts of sapogenins.

Question 6

Where do a number of yam species exist?

Answer 6

Mexico.

Question 7

What did the sapogenin rich tubers of Mexico contain?

Answer 7

Diosgenin, yielding progesterone.

Question 8

Which company did Marker found?

Answer 8

Syntex. But left to found Botanica-Mex due to disputes over profits.

Question 9

What did Syntex develop through research program?

Answer 9

Developed an efficient method for the productions of cortisone and progesterone mimic norethindrone.

Question 10

What was important about norethindrone?

Answer 10

It became the active principle in the world’s first birth control pill.

Question 11

What were yam tubers used to produce in 1973?

Answer 11

550 tons of diosgenin.

Question 12

What was another important steroid precursor?

Answer 12

Stigmasterol from soybeans.

Question 13

Where does semi-synthesis from diosgenin remain important?

Answer 13

India and China.

Question 14

What does progesterone prevent?

Answer 14

Ovulation.

Question 15

What are cortisones used to treat?

Answer 15

Skin rashes, contact dermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, and asthma.

Question 16

What is the saw palmetto and where is it native to?

Answer 16

A small palm species, native to the southeastern U.S.-Florida.

Question 17

What was the saw palmetto fruit used for?

Answer 17

Used medicinally by indigenous groups in Florida to treat bladder and urinary infections, and the edible seeds were harvest as food.

Question 18

What was it used for in the 20th century?

Answer 18

Used in American folk medicine to treat prostate enlargement.

Question 19

How did Germany see saw palmetto as an effective treatment?

Answer 19

A fat soluble extract of the fruit containing fatty acids and sterols did in fact treat prostate enlargement (BPH).

Question 20

What does BPH cause?

Answer 20

Obstruction of the bladder neck and urethra, resulting in symptoms that include excessive urination and general discomfort.

Question 21

Where is BPH used most?

Answer 21

Europe. However, recent trials say it works no better than a placebo.

Question 22

GASTROINTESTINAL SYSTEM:

What are two closely related species of Senna?

Answer 22

S. angusifolia and S.alexandrina.

Question 23

Where is S. angusifolia native to?

Answer 23

Arabian peninsula, west Africa and Asia.

Question 24

Where is S. alexandria native to?

Answer 24

Northeastern Africa, cultivated in Sundan, China, and India.

Question 25

What are each of these Senna species?

Answer 25

Small leguminous shrubs that thrive in hot, desert like habitats.

Question 26

What did the Arab physician (Serapion the Younger) recommend Senna for?

Answer 26

An effective purgative and laxative.

Question 27

How do you produce the Senna laxative?

Answer 27

Senna leaflets and mature pods are drive and powdered/

Question 28

When was Senna introduced to Europe?

Answer 28

1000 years ago by Arab traders.

Question 29

Prior to plantations, where did Senna come from?

Answer 29

Wild plants harvested in Africa and Arabia.

Question 30

Where were natural Senna laxatives replaced by less expensive synthetic drugs, particularly in North America?

Answer 30

Beginning in the 1950s.

Question 31

What happened when synthetic phenolphthalein was banned by FDA in 1997 due to the potentiality of it being a carcinogen?

Answer 31

Sennoside A nad B which are enzymatically hydrolyzed by gut bacteria to form laxatives (active principles of Senna), were used instead.

Question 32

This large demand after the phenolphthalein ban resulted in what?

Answer 32

Plantation establishment in Africa and Asia.

Question 33

What is the Cascara?

Answer 33

A small deciduous tree, native to western NA, from south BC to California and east to Montana.

Question 34

What was the inner bark of Cascara used for?

Answer 34

Used by indigenous groups in west NA as a strong laxative-purgative.

Question 35

Where is the bark from?

Answer 35

Peeled from trees felled in the spring and early summer.

Question 36

When was cascara bark first marketed as a commercial laxative?

Answer 36

1877.

Question 37

Species extirpated by 1920s from California and Michigan companies due to un-sustainability of wild trees, where was cascara bark obtained from 1940s onwards?

Answer 37

Plantations established in Oregon, Washington and some New England states.

Question 38

What is the active compound of Cascara?

Answer 38

Cascaroside A and B, which are enzymatically hydrolyzed by gut bacteria to form the putative emodin.

Question 39

When did the FDA ban cascara as extracts were not generally rezoned as safe and effective?

Answer 39

November 2002.

Question 40

Why was this banning of cascara first administered?

Answer 40

Preliminary data suggesting carcinogenic effects.

Question 41

What is another something something banned like cascara?

Answer 41

Eurasian buckthorns-contained cascarosides and emotion.

Question 42

What is ipecac?

Answer 42

A low shrub that occurs as an understory plant in the moist, shady woodlands of the Brazilian highlands and eastern Bolivia.

Question 43

What is a related species of ipecac?

Answer 43

P. acuminata, which occurs in Colombia.

Question 44

What did indigenous people use the bark of the thickened fibrous roots for?

Answer 44

To treat intestinal infections-dysentery.

Question 45

Where did samples of powdered ipecac root first appear?

Answer 45

France in 1672.

Question 46

Who was the person who popularized ipecac root as a cure for dysentery?

Answer 46

Helvetius.

Question 47

What did Thomas Dover develop?

Answer 47

Dover’s powder, made of a mixture of ipecac, opium, and other substances sold as a treatment for fever, gout and dysentery.

Question 48

What else was ipecac used for?

Answer 48

Emetic (induces vomiting), administered to children as a purgative agent.
Moderate dosages are used to induce perspiration and as an expectorant in treating bronchitis, and small does as a digestive stimulant.

Question 49

What are the active principles of ipecac?

Answer 49

The alkaloids emetine and cephaeline.

Question 50

What is ipecac an effective treatment for?

Answer 50

Amoebic dysentery (amoebiasis), but its powerful emetic properties (vomiting and diarrhoea), limit its use.

Question 51

What negative effects does ipecac posses?

Answer 51

May cause inflammation of the peripheral nerves, irregular heartbeat, sudden lowering of blood pressure, an death in extreme cases.

Question 52

Where were safer and effective treatments for amoebic dysentery developed?

Answer 52

1960s.

Question 53

Ipecac use in everyday life?

Answer 53

Vomiting from poison, safer methods now. Also used in aversion therapy, particularly in treating chronic alcoholism.