Water hyssop, Bacopa monnieri, is a tropical aquatic plant that has been used for hundreds of years in India and China to assist mind operate. It is now being investigated by researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru College in New Delhi as a means of decreasing irritation within the mind, and probably enhancing cognitive efficiency in aged folks, defending the mind from decline in outdated age.
Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, are beloved within the UK for being among the many first flowers to bloom in early spring. Nonetheless, they’re toxic if eaten and there may be proof the traditional Greeks used them, in small doses, for his or her mind-altering results.
Within the Fifties, a pure alkaloid known as galantamine was extracted from snowdrop bulbs, and that is now used to gradual the development of Alzheimer’s illness and mitigate its signs, similar to reminiscence loss, although it can not remedy the illness. It really works by slowing the decline within the transmission of chemical messages within the mind. Proteins from snowdrops are additionally being investigated as a attainable remedy for HIV.
Overharvesting of the bulbs that produce these delicate drooping flowers for our gardens and medicinal use has resulted in lots of species turning into threatened within the wild.
Genetic engineering
Researchers are learning how crops could be genetically modified to create new medicines. Transgenic crops have been engineered to introduce novel useful traits and biologists are exploring whether or not they can be utilized to mass-produce pharmaceutical merchandise.
One contender is the tobacco plant. The smoking of tobacco has turn out to be one of many largest public well being threats the world has ever encountered, and cigarettes kill greater than eight million folks a 12 months. Paradoxically, sooner or later, tobacco could turn out to be the first weapon in opposition to one of many world’s deadliest ailments and may very well be used to avoid wasting tens of millions of lives.
Tobacco crops are simple to change and manipulate as a result of their genetic make-up, so they’re good candidates for testing new applied sciences. Biologists in Oklahoma are growing crops with seeds containing proteins that skinny the blood, serving to to battle stroke and coronary heart illness. And as tobacco is a reasonable, high-volume crop that is already grown worldwide, this may very well be a sustainable and low-cost solution to produce new complicated medicines.
