Cannabis cultivation: Methodological issues for obtaining medical-grade product.

As studies continue to reveal favorable findings for the use of cannabidiol in the management of childhood epilepsy syndromes and other disorders, best practices for the large-scale production of Cannabis are needed for timely product development and research purposes. The processes of two institutions with extensive experience in producing large-scale cannabidiol chemotype Cannabis crops-GW Pharmaceuticals and the University of Mississippi-are described, including breeding, indoor and outdoor growing, harvesting, and extraction methods. Such practices have yielded desirable outcomes in Cannabis breeding and production: GW Pharmaceuticals has a collection of chemotypes dominant in any one of eight cannabinoids, two of which-cannabidiol and cannabidivarin-are supporting epilepsy clinical trial research, whereas in addition to a germplasm bank of high-THC, high-CBD, and intermediate type cannabis varieties, the team at University of Mississippi has established an in vitro propagation protocol for cannabis with no detectable variations in morphologic, physiologic, biochemical, and genetic profiles as compared to the mother plants. Improvements in phytocannabinoid yields and growing efficiency are expected as research continues at these institutions. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Cannabinoids and Epilepsy".

[Analysis of hot spots and trend of molecular pharmacognosy research based on project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of 1995-2014].

This study collected 1995-2014 molecular pharmacognosy study, a total of 595 items, funded by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). TDA and Excel software were used to analyze the data of the projects about general situation, hot spots of research with rank analytic and correlation analytic methods. Supported by NSFC molecular pharmacognosy projects and funding a gradual increase in the number of, the proportion of funds for pharmaceutical research funding tends to be stable; mainly supported by molecular biology methods of genuine medicinal materials, secondary metabolism and Germplasm Resources Research; hot drugs including Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Radix Rehmanniae, Cordyceps sinensis, hot contents including tanshinone biosynthesis, Rehmannia glutinosa continuous cropping obstacle.

[International research trends of pharmacognosy on molecular level --based on analysis of SCI literature].

The techniques and methods of molecular biology have been widely applied in pharmacognosy fields. International development trends of pharmacognosy studies on molecular level were analyzed by bibliometric methods using the SCIE database on Web of Science, the literature distribution, national distribution, agency distribution, periodicals distribution, and hot research topics were described using multivariate statistical analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis method,etc. The number of international pharmacognosy literature on molecular level is increasing year by year. USA, China and Japan have close cooperation, and focus on molecular identification and genetic diversity. Chinese scientists issued high-impact factor journals papers and high citations amount in the international forefront. The international pharmacognosy research on molecular level has developed rapidly. Chinese research has a significant influence.The molecular mechanism of the formation of Dao-di Herbs may become the next hotspot.

[Analysis and outlook on teaching status of Molecular Pharmacognosy].

The teaching status of Molecular Pharmacognosy in 28 institutions in China was investigated by questionnaire and the survey data was analyzed by SPSS. Research contents included course beginning years, majors, class hours, characteristics of the course, teaching ways, the theory and practice contents, evaluation modes, selection of teaching material, teaching achievements, teachers and so on for undergraduates and graduates. Research results showed that with 20 years' development, Molecular Pharmacognosy had been offered for both undergraduate and graduate students in at least 20 colleges and universities and Molecular Pharmacognosy education in China showed good development momentum. At the same time, to promote the development of Molecular Pharmacognosy further, investment for it should be increased and practical teaching condition should be improved.

[Research and educational activities through perspective of pharmacognosy].

The research field of pharmacognosy covers a wide variety of subjects based on a knowledge of natural medicines and extends its influence in all surrounding directions. Pharmacognosy itself is generally regarded as one of the branches of pharmaceutical science although the processes to achieve the objectives are not always analytical as are other branches in this field. The extraordinarily long history and broad view provide researchers opportunities to conduct unique projects which can enhance the perspective of the subject in the future. Fieldwork is one feature of scientific research and is viewed as more valuable to projects in pharmacognosy than to those in other fields of pharmaceutical sciences. The frame of my research has been formed around fieldwork; projects targeted are achieved based on information and samples gathered through this means, and further studies are suggested by the ideas obtained. Some of the results and experiences gathered in these projects are described in this article for discussion of the future image of the pharmacognosial field.

Antibacterial discovery and development--the failure of success?

A combination of approaches and compounds-many of which failed to yield immediate results in the past-will ultimately prove invaluable to the drug industry in the ongoing battle against infectious disease.

Prospects for plant-derived antibacterials.

Can weakly active phytochemicals be combined synergistically to produce new antibacterial treatments?

[Carbohydrate study for 40 years].

This review describes the carbohydrate study and the natural product related to the glycoside chemistry. What shall the people in the field of pharmacognosy and natural products chemistry search in scene in future? Forty years before while isolating dimeric compound having naphthoquinonepyrone skeleton from the coloring material produced by the pathogen that hosted in wheat and caused rotten root disease, silica gel has to be treated with oxalic acid to reduce the absorbency before separation. However now a days, availability of reversed phase adsorbents for liquid chromatography has made the separation and isolation of complex compounds possible, easy and rapid. With the advancement of mechanical/physicochemical analytic methods, it has even been possible to isolate traces of compounds present in complex. This advancement has made it possible to determine structure of saponins and complex polysaccharides without decomposition and carry out in vitro bioassay at the same time using various cells on-line. Further, this review describes the oligosaccharide syntheses and biological activities of glycosphingolipids, focusing especially on those found in invertebrates.

[Development of Plant Metabolomics and Medicinal Plant Genomics].

A variety of chemicals produced by plants, often referred to as 'phytochemicals', have been used as medicines, food, fuels and industrial raw materials. Recent advances in the study of genomics and metabolomics in plant science have accelerated our understanding of the mechanisms, regulation and evolution of the biosynthesis of specialized plant products. We can now address such questions as how the metabolomic diversity of plants is originated at the levels of genome, and how we should apply this knowledge to drug discovery, industry and agriculture. Our research group has focused on metabolomics-based functional genomics over the last 15 years and we have developed a new research area called 'Phytochemical Genomics'. In this review, the development of a research platform for plant metabolomics is discussed first, to provide a better understanding of the chemical diversity of plants. Then, representative applications of metabolomics to functional genomics in a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, are described. The extension of integrated multi-omics analyses to non-model specialized plants, e.g., medicinal plants, is presented, including the identification of novel genes, metabolites and networks for the biosynthesis of flavonoids, alkaloids, sulfur-containing metabolites and terpenoids. Further, functional genomics studies on a variety of medicinal plants is presented. I also discuss future trends in pharmacognosy and related sciences.

[Pharmacognosical study during 40 years].

In order to quality control for medicinal plants such as Aconitum charmicaelii, Rhemannia glutinosa, Atractyrodes lancea, Pinellia ternata, Panax species and Gentiana scabra were clonally micropropagated by tip tissue culture and embryogenetic techniques. Monoclonal antibodies against the bioactive compounds contained in the crude drugs were prepared and set up the ELISA as a high sensitive and quick determination method. A newly developed eastern blotting methodology can stain typically the only antigen molecule and the related compounds having a same aglycone. Knockout extract can be prepared by using an immunoaffinity column conjugated with monoclonal antibody, and its importance has been discussed. Single chain fragment-variable gene against solamargine was cloned and transformed to a host plant, Solanum chasianum resulting in the increase of antigen molecule as 2.5 to 3 times. Three biosynthetic enzymes regarding marihuana compounds, THCA-, CBDA-, CBCA-synthases were isolated. THCAsynthase was cloned, over expressed and confirmed its characteristics including FAD combining enzyme, and finally determined the structure by X-ray analysis. The distribution of THCAsynthase was also investigated using its and GFP hybrid gene. We found new functions for saffron like improving learning and memory and LTP for blocking by ethanol. A folk medicine in Taiwan, Anoectochilus formosanus was propagated in vitro and investigated opening new pharmacological activities in lipid metabolism.

Ethnophytotechnology: Harnessing the Power of Ethnobotany with Biotechnology.

Ethnobotany (the scientific study of traditional plant knowledge) has aided the discovery of important medicines. However, as single-molecule drugs or synergistic mixtures, these remedies have faced obstacles in production and analysis. Now, advances in bioreactor technology, metabolic engineering, and analytical instrumentation are improving the production, manipulation, and scientific understanding of such remedies.

[Approach to Teaching Kampo Medicine at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University].

An approach to educating our pharmaceutical students about Kampo medicine in the six-year system of undergraduate pharmacy education at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University is introduced, including the author's opinions. Curriculum revisions have been made in our university for students entering after 2012. In teaching Kampo medicine at present, a medical doctor and an on-site pharmacist share information difficult to give in a lecture with the teaching staff in my laboratory. For example, before the curriculum revision, we conferred with a pharmacist and a doctor in the course "Kampo Medicine A, B" for 4th year students, in which students were presented a basic knowledge of Kampo medicine, the application of important Kampo medicines, combinations of crude drugs, etc. Further, in our "Introduction to Kampo Medicine" for 6th year students, presented after they have practiced in hospitals and community pharmacies, we again lecture on the pharmacological characteristics of Kampo medicines, on "pattern (Sho)", and on evidence-based medicine (EBM) and research studies of important Kampo medicines. After our curriculum revision, "Kampo Medicine A, B" was rearranged into the courses "Kampo and Pharmacognosy" and "Clinical Kampo Medicine". "Kampo and Pharmacognosy" is now provided in the second semester of the 3rd year, and in this course we lecture on the basic knowledge of Kampo medicine. An advanced lecture will be given on "Clinical Kampo Medicine" in the 6th year. We are searching for the best way to interest students in Kampo medicine, and to counteract any misunderstandings about Kampo medicine.

Reverse Pharmacognosy and Reverse Pharmacology; Two Closely Related Approaches for Drug Discovery Development.

Pharmacognosy is a science, which study natural products as a source of new drug leads and effective drug development. Rational and economic search for novel lead structures could maximize the speed of drug discovery by using powerful high technology methods. Reverse pharmacognosy, a complementary to pharmacognosy, couples the high throughput screening (HTS), virtual screening and databases along with the knowledge of traditional medicines. These strategies lead to identification of numerous in vitro active and selective hits enhancing the speed of drug discovery from natural sources. Besides, reverse pharmacology is a target base drug discovery approach; in the first step, a hypothesis is made that the alteration of specific protein activity will produce beneficial curative effects. Both, reverse pharmacognosy and reverse pharmacology take advantages of high technology methods to accomplish their particular purposes. Moreover, reverse pharmacognosy effectively utilize traditional medicines and natural products as promising sources to provide new drug leads as well as promote the rational use of them by using valuable information like protein structure databases and chemical libraries which prepare pharmacological profile of traditional medicine, plant extract or natural compounds.

The role of pharmacognosy in modern medicine.

Drugs of natural origin continue to be important for the treatment of many diseases worldwide. Pharmacognosy, a long-established pharmaceutical science, has played a diverse role in the discovery, characterisation, production and standardisation of these drugs. The relevance of this discipline in terms of research and teaching has increased in the last decade as members of the public in developed countries have turned to the use of herbal remedies for the self-medication of minor diseases. However, many phytomedicines require further investigation for their clinical effectiveness, while others need to be thoroughly investigated for their potential health risks or interactions with prescription drugs.

Pharmacognosy and reverse pharmacognosy: a new concept for accelerating natural drug discovery.

Combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening (HTS) have led to the identification of numerous agents that are active and selective in vitro. Identifying drugs that are active in vivo, however, remains a challenge. Traditional medicinal cures based on natural materials have proven useful for many populations worldwide, representing huge and disperse tracts of knowledge that are sometimes neglected in Western research due to differences in the concepts of illness. In this review we introduce a new approach, termed 'reverse pharmacognosy' (from diverse molecules to plants), which can be coupled with pharmacognosy (from biodiverse plants to molecules). Reverse pharmacognosy utilizes new techniques, such as HTS, virtual screening and a knowledge database containing the traditional uses of plants. Integrating pharmacognosy and reverse pharmacognosy in the research process may provide an efficient and rapid tool for natural drug discovery.

Marine pharmacology in 2000: marine compounds with antibacterial, anticoagulant, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, antiplatelet, antituberculosis, and antiviral activities; affecting the cardiovascular, immune, and nervous systems and other miscellaneous mechanisms of action.

During 2000 research on the pharmacology of marine chemicals involved investigators from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Phillipines, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. This current review, a sequel to the authors' 1998 and 1999 reviews, classifies 68 peer-reviewed articles on the basis of the reported preclinical pharmacologic properties of marine chemicals derived from a diverse group of marine animals, algae, fungi, and bacteria. Antibacterial, anticoagulant, antifungal, antimalarial, antiplatelet, antituberculosis, or antiviral activity was reported for 35 marine chemicals. An additional 20 marine compounds were shown to have significant effects on the cardiovascular and nervous system, and to possess anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressant properties. Finally, 23 marine compounds were reported to act on a variety of molecular targets and thus could potentially contribute to several pharmacologic classes. Thus, as in 1998 and 1999, during 2000 pharmacologic research with marine chemicals continued to contribute potentially novel chemical leads to the ongoing global search for therapeutic agents in the treatment of multiple disease categories.

Pharmacognosy in the 21st century.

The term pharmacognosy as a constituent scientific discipline of pharmacy has been in use for nearly 200 years, and it refers to studies on natural product drugs. During the last half of the 20th century, pharmacognosy evolved from being a descriptive botanical subject to one having a more chemical and biological focus. At the beginning of the 21st century, pharmacognosy teaching in academic pharmacy institutions has been given new relevance, as a result of the explosive growth in the use of herbal remedies (phytomedicines) in modern pharmacy practice, particularly in western Europe and North America. In turn, pharmacognosy research areas are continuing to expand, and now include aspects of cell and molecular biology in relation to natural products, ethnobotany and phytotherapy, in addition to the more traditional analytical method development and phytochemistry. Examples are provided in this review of promising bioactive compounds obtained in two multidisciplinary natural product drug discovery projects, aimed at the elucidation of new plant-derived cancer chemotherapeutic agents and novel cancer chemopreventives, respectively. The systematic study of herbal remedies offers pharmacognosy groups an attractive new area of research, ranging from investigating the biologically active principles of phytomedicines and their mode of action and potential drug interactions, to quality control, and involvement in clinical trials.