Interview with Peter Houghton

Interview: The science of herbal remedies 11 March 2008 Peter Houghton hillock Joanne Thomson that there is still much to be learnt from standard medicine. Peter Houghton is Professor in Pharmacognosy in the department of pharmacy at Kings College London.

His research room include substances from bush of potential use in treating central bothered system degenerative disease, cancer and for injury healing. He is further interested in the investigation of herbal medicines.

Peter joined the Habitual Product Story leading article board at the beginning of 2008. What inspired you to become a scientist? I have always been intrigued by the amazing variety in nature and wondered how things work and how they were formed.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in the Cotswolds and my father, who was a pharmacist, pointed out many of the wild shrub growing there. I guess that is where my particular interest started.

I have always been intrigued alongside the amazing divergency in nature" However, I like exploring in all sorts of ways and drink in working elsewhere connections between manifestly unrelated facts and how we, as humans, have exploited these.

I think that it is very important for us scientists not to lose a sense of wonder at the incredible complication and beauty of the world around us and the skill and skill of what humans can do. You are interested in ethnopharmacology. Could you analyze what this is and why it is important in the development of original drugs?

Ethnopharmacology is the well-ordered study of traditional medicines, the matter worn for medicinal, pharmaceutical and toxicological purposes by deviating human cultures and societies. Assorted of these materials consist of plants or fungi and their biological activity is, of course, due to the chemical compounds contained in them.

Many important drugs enjoy morphine, digoxin and reserpine came into use being the plants containing them were known as poisons and used as medicines.

In addition, full compounds can serve as lead molecules such as the local anaesthetics derived from cocaine and the muscle relaxants based on curare alkaloids.

The antimalarial artemisinin and galantamine, which is euphemistic pre-owned to deal with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, are recently-introduced medicine which have an ethnopharmacological basis. What are you working on at the moment?

I have an interest in plants used to balm cognitive impairment in dated age, and those cast-off to treat cancer and diabetes." In recent years I have been interested in tree used traditionally to help cognitive impairment in old age, particularly with regard to cholinesterase inhibitors and antioxidants.

I also have an interest in plants used to treat cancer and diabetes and those used to comfort wounds to heal. Do you lap up there is a place for both household and Western medicament in society today?

Very definitely. Medicine is increasingly realising that mixtures of compose are often more useful in treating a malady than a single 'silver bullet' chemical.

Modern approaches to chemotherapy of cancer and AIDS are instance of this. There is increasing evidence for 'polyvalence' in habitual medicines. In other words, contradistinct genre of constituent are present with differing modes of action but all contributing to the all-inclusive clinical effect.

From http://rsc.org/publishing/journals/cb/volume/2008/4/intervie~.asp