Validation of traditional medicine through systems biology

[tarak]

The drug discovery and development process is long and capital intensive.It is also affected by the IPR and regulatory affairs like FDAapprovals.There is a wealth of traditional knowledge and alternate systems of medicine like Ayurveda,Unani,Chinese herbal medicine etc..Using the present day genomics and systems biology tools; Is it possible to identify the active genes and complex cellular pathways behind the action of a herbal medicine?If so,whether such information could be used to validate the herbal medicine as a drug for curing chronic illnesses like Diabetes,Arthritis etc..

[Ganoderma]

isnt that ho wmany drugs come to be? many are simply researched in labs but many are also discovered and tested then eventually made into drugs. Shultes discovered many plants that were used as "traditional herbal medicine" that has been tested and used in medicine. Ethnobotoany has been turning up things for a while. Is that what your talking about?

[tarak]

I am trying to understand more about over the counter health products/nutraceuticals/functional foods.Can the complex metabolites like quinones,alkaloids,terpenes etc..validated for thier medicinal benefits using gene expression tools to increase their credibility.There is a rapidly expanding field of drug discovery through pharmacogenomics.How efficient is this compared to conventional drug trials which take a long time.

[Ganoderma]

Ah i see. i know very little about it but you may be interested in Reishi mushroom or Ling-zhi (chinese name). the scientific is Ganoderma lucidum. this has been used for thousands of years in traditional medicie and is now been trested somewhat heavily to see what benefits are coming from it. Looks very promising. Check out http://www.mushworld.org and sign up, its worth the reads.