Journal of ethnopharmacology
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Artemisia afra is one of the most widely used herbal remedies in South Africa. This highly aromatic shrub is used to treat various disorders including coughs, colds, influenza, and malaria. Due to the long tradition of use and popularity of A. afra, it has been successfully commercialised and can currently be bought from various internet stores and pharmacies. The most notable indication is for the prophylaxis and treatment of Plasmodium falciparum infections. In 2013, the Medicine Control Council (MCC) of South Africa banned the sale of A. afra for the treatment of malaria because it lacks scientific evidence of efficacy. This resulted in a lawsuit being filed in 2017 against the MCC by an herbal company which claimed that artemisinin was responsible for A. afra's antiplasmodial activity. At the time, no scientific literature reported that A. afra contained artemisinin. ⋯ Pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo animal experiments failed to yield any promising drug leads. However, if the recent randomised controlled trials can be independently replicated in well-designed and executed clinical trials it might indicate that A. afra contain powerful 'prodrugs'. Future research on A. afra should therefore focus on reproducing the randomised controlled trials and on artificially metabolising A. afra extracts/compounds in order to identify the presence of any 'prodrugs'.
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A myriad of evidence have shown that kidney-yang deficiency syndrome (KYDS) is associated with metabolic disorders of the intestinal microbiota, while TCMs can treat KYDS by regulating gut microbiota metabolism. However, the specific interplay between KYDS and intestinal microbiota, and the intrinsic regulation mechanism of You-gui pill (YGP) on KYDS' gut microbiota remains largely unknown so far. ⋯ Overall, our findings have preliminary confirmed that KYDS is closely related to metabolic and microbial dysbiosis, whereas YGP can improve the metabolic disorder of KYDS by acting on intestinal microbiota. Meanwhile, this will lay the foundation for the further KYDS's metagenomic research and the use of intestinal microbiotas as drug targets to treat KYDS.