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[The Dope on] Dopamine's Central Role in the Brain's Motivation and Reward Networks

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=dopami...tivation-reward 'Researchers have for the first time found that the neurotransmitter dopamine is central to the human brain network governing motivation and a sense of reward and pleasure—and that it changes with age. The finding could provide clues to healthy, happy aging and pave the way to new treatments for neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia as well as addictive behaviors from alcoholism and drug abuse to compulsive gambling. The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) team used two imaging methods, positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to examine the normal human brain reward circuit, a complex neurochemical network that centers around a path from the ventral tegmental area in the midbrain (where dopamine is synthesized) to the nucleus accumbens in the forebrain (where it is released). Comparing brain activity in volunteers playing video slot machines, the researchers identified processes involved both in anticipating a reward and actually getting one—and discerned age-dependent changes in those processes.' [...]

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

From Wine to New Drugs: A Novel Way to Reduce Damage from Heart Attacks

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=novel-...t-attack-damage 'An alcohol-busting enzyme may help prevent heart attack damage, according to a new study in Science. Researchers report that aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), an enzyme important for processing alcohol in the human body, clears harmful toxins produced in cells when blood flow is blocked in the heart—and a new drug can switch it on. Red wine has long been toted as a preventive measure against cardiac disease. In fact, heart cells exposed to ethanol in the laboratory actually recover better when researchers temporarily stop the flow of oxygenated blood to them. The study published today suggests that ALDH2 may contribute to wine's beneficial effects. The enzyme, activated as cells work to clear alcohol, also eliminates toxic by-products from the breakdown of fats in cells during a heart attack—thereby reducing damage to this vital organ. During a cardiac event, blood flow to the heart ceases. Free radicals (highly reactive molecules released during energy production) accumulate in cells struggling through oxygen deprivation, damaging critical fats and proteins and increasing the chance of premature cell death. ALDH2 may help heart cells survive this onslaught by repairing some of the damaged fats, according to the study. Although not all cardiac damage is avoided, "any time you can save cells, you have a better chance of recovery," says study co-author Thomas Hurley, a biochemist at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. Researchers, aware that alcohol triggers the protective effects of ALDH2 during a heart attack, searched for drug alternatives that could switch on the enzyme. The synthetic compound aldA1 was found to directly bind ALDH2, enhancing its activity and reducing cardiac damage by 60 percent when injected directly into the hearts of live healthy rats five minutes before blood flow blockage was induced. Although these results are promising, adapting this therapy for intravenous or oral use in humans will be a challenge, cautions Michael Sack, a cardiologist at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md., who did not participate in the study. The researchers remain optimistic about the newly identified drug, however, arguing that it could help patients in east Asia where 40 percent of the population has nonfunctional ALDH2 due to a gene mutation. Aside from enhancing ALDH2 activity two-fold in normal rat hearts, aldA1 can actually restore full function to the mutant form of the enzyme, Hurley notes.' [...]

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Marijuana Ingredients Show Promise In Battling Superbugs

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80908103045.htm 'Substances in marijuana show promise for fighting deadly drug-resistant bacterial infections, including so-called "superbugs," without causing the drug's mood-altering effects, scientists in Italy and the United Kingdom are reporting. Besides serving as infection-fighting drugs, the substances also could provide a more environmentally-friendly alternative to synthetic antibacterial substances now widely used in personal care items, including soaps and cosmetics, they say. In the new study, Giovanni Appendino and colleagues point out that scientists have known for years that marijuana contains antibacterial substances. However, little research has been done on those ingredients, including studies on their ability to fight antibiotic resistant infections, the scientists say. To close that gap, researchers tested five major marijuana ingredients termed cannabinoids on different strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a "superbug" increasingly resistant to antibiotics. All five substances showed potent germ-killing activity against these drug-resistant strains, as did some synthetic non-natural cannabinoids, they say. The scientists also showed that these substances appear to kill bacteria by different mechanisms than conventional antibiotics, making them more likely to avoid bacterial resistance, the scientists note. At least two of the substances have no known mood-altering effects, suggesting that they could be developed into marijuana-based drugs without causing a "high."'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Reform Research

Following the dicussion with Mindexpansion, JDanger, Vertemorphous etc, here is the start of my collection of relevant research. This will be transferred to a thread shortly, and (if I had my way), would be avalable through the eventual (possible) website set up to provide advocacy and information to defend ethnobotanical cultivation and practices. Note that due to my university web access most of these links won't work, so you may have to use the citation provided and find a copy yourself. Enjoy! "Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse" Prof David Nutt FMedScia, , Leslie A King PhDb, William Saulsbury MAc and Prof Colin Blakemore FRSd, The Lancet, Volume 369, Issue 9566, 24 March 2007-30 March 2007, Pages 1047-1053. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=A...1e5ba85078e08ff Summary(Abstract) Drug misuse and abuse are major health problems. Harmful drugs are regulated according to classification systems that purport to relate to the harms and risks of each drug. However, the methodology and processes underlying classification systems are generally neither specified nor transparent, which reduces confidence in their accuracy and undermines health education messages. We developed and explored the feasibility of the use of a nine-category matrix of harm, with an expert delphic procedure, to assess the harms of a range of illicit drugs in an evidence-based fashion. We also included five legal drugs of misuse (alcohol, khat, solvents, alkyl nitrites, and tobacco) and one that has since been classified (ketamine) for reference. The process proved practicable, and yielded roughly similar scores and rankings of drug harm when used by two separate groups of experts. The ranking of drugs produced by our assessment of harm differed from those used by current regulatory systems. Our methodology offers a systematic framework and process that could be used by national and international regulatory bodies to assess the harm of current and future drugs of abuse. "The Use of Hallucinogens in the Treatment of Addiction" Author: John H. Halpern DOI: 10.3109/16066359609010756, Journal Addiction Research & Theory, Volume 4, Issue 2 June 1996 , pages 177 - 189 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~c...84956538~db=all Abstract Research into treating drug dependence with hallucinogens, although promising, ended with questions still unanswered because of varying, in some cases skeptical, methodology and insufficient adherence to a double-blind, placebo-controlled design. Interest is again emerging, especially with the recent patenting in the United States of ibogaine for its apparent anti-craving properties. A review of the literature shows that these properties may be present across the entire family of hallucinogens. Potential efficacy may be tied to their agonism and antagonism at specific serotonin receptor sites. After the administration of a hallucinogen, there is a positive “afterglow” lasting weeks to months which might be extended through repeated dosing. Ibogaine and LSD both have lengthy periods of action, making their application unwieldy. However, tryptamines, such as N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), are so short-acting that they could easily be administered in an office setting. With numerous hallucinogens yet to be tested, a hallucinogen might well be discovered with superior anti-craving properties and non-deleterious side-effect profile. From harm reduction to human rights: bringing liberalism back into drug reform debates" Author: Andrew D. Hathaway DOI: 10.1080/0959523021000023270, Drug and Alcohol Review, Volume 21, Issue 4 December 2002 , pages 397 - 404 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~c...13659788~db=all "Andrew Hathaway notes that harm reduction seldom articulates or acknowledges the moral foundation on which it might build to affect meaningful changes in policy. He argues that despite the rhetorical strengths of empiricism, an openly liberal, human rights orientation imbues rational argument with the principles needed to sustain pragmatic drug reform solutions. Liberalism, with its norms of social tolerance and respect for civil liberties, is presented here as key to the future development of harm reduction discourse as a way of advancing human rights themes in contemporary drug policy debates." More to follow.

Yeti101

Yeti101

 

MacFarlane swears off Marijuana

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/wenn/20080706/ten...-c60bd6d_1.html ‘Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has vowed to stop smoking marijuana - because it makes him too paranoid. MacFarlane signed a GBP50 million deal with 20th Century Fox in May, in a move which will make him the highest-paid writer-producer in television - and he’s determined to increase his productivity by swearing off illegal drugs. He says, “I don’t smoke much pot anymore. One of the last times I was stoned, I was convinced that I would die unless I kept moving my body. “So I sat there, baked, waving my arms around like a crazy person.”‘

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Bright Bugs Clue for Plant Medicinals

http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?i...C35C&sc=rss 'In the insect world, bright reds, oranges and yellows can be a warning: “Eat me at your own risk, pal.” Because colorful bugs can be toxic, they often get their chemical protection from nibbling poisonous plants. But these poisons can have a flip side for us—some fight cancer or tropical parasites that cause diseases like malaria. The idea that colorful bugs can tip us off to disease-fighting plants isn’t new. But researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute just backed it up with science, in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. They chose ten plant species that kill parasites and cancer in lab tests, and ten species that look similar but do nothing. Then they headed into the Panamanian jungle to survey hundreds of these plants for beetles and caterpillars. Turns out, they found colorful bugs on almost all the toxic plants but less than half of the harmless plants. And black, brown and gray bugs didn’t have a preference—they ate indiscriminately. So modern-day shamans scouring the jungle for cancer-fighting drugs might just cut down on search time by keeping an eye out—for brightly colored bugs.'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Fear Factor: Dopamine May Fuel Dread, Too

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fear-f...mine&sc=rss 'A brain chemical linked to pleasure and depression may also trigger fear, according to a new study. Researchers say this may explain why the neurotransmitter dopamine, known to cause addictive behavior, may also play a role in anxiety disorders. "Showing that dopamine can enhance both approach and avoidance behaviors is an important finding," says Howard Fields, a neurobiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Approach behavior describes what someone attracted to an object does to obtain it. Fields says the finding reveals a new potential target for treating puzzling neurological disorders such as schizophrenia. Scientists have long suspected that dopamine was linked to dread as well as delight. To confirm their suspicions, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor researchers studied what happens to rats when the neurotransmitter is blocked from reaching the rear portion of the nucleus accumbens, a brain region where dopamine is produced and reward-seeking activities (such as eating and other urges) as well as emotions including fear are processed. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neurology: the animals remained calm even when scientists also removed a fear-controlling brain chemical (glutamate), which ordinarily would have sent them into a tizzy. This suggests that too much dopamine in the rear of the nucleus accumbens (linked to dread) may at least be partly responsible for the paranoia that many schizophrenia patients experience, study co-author Kent Berridge says. "Some researchers have thought that dopamine may drive paranoia in schizophrenics," he adds. "The results are consistent with that idea."'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Strip Search of 13-Year-Old for Ibuprofen Ruled Unconstitutional

http://blog.aclu.org/2008/07/12/strip-sear...constitutional/ ‘If you have a problem with school officials strip searching 13-year-olds for Advil – or if you care about the government’s standards for informant use and invasive searches – you can take relief in yesterday’s ruling by a full panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled 6-5 that students cannot be strip-searched based on the uncorroborated word of another student who is facing disciplinary punishment. “A reasonable school official, seeking to protect the students in his charge, does not subject a thirteen-year-old girl to a traumatic search to ‘protect’ her from the danger of Advil,” the federal appellate court wrote in today’s opinion. “We reject Safford’s effort to lump together these run-of-the-mill anti-inflammatory pills with the evocative term ‘prescription drugs,’ in a knowing effort to shield an imprudent strip search of a young girl behind a larger war against drugs.” “It does not take a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old girl is an invasion of constitutional rights. More than that: it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity,” the court continued.’

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Combination Drug Taken Early Relieves Migraine Symptoms

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80707161437.htm 'A combination drug taken within an hour after the start of a migraine is effective in relieving symptoms, according to research published in the July 8, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The drug combines sumatriptan, a migraine-specific drug that affects the constriction of blood vessels, with naproxen sodium, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that works on the inflammatory aspect of migraine and relieves non-traditional migraine symptoms such as sinus pain and pressure and neck pain. "Unfortunately, many migraine sufferers put off treatment," said study author Stephen Silberstein, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "This study provides more evidence that treating a migraine at the first sign of pain increases the likelihood of relief."'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Police nab two cannabis growers in cemetery

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnough...oddlyEnoughNews 'Police have detained two custodians who were about to harvest their first crop of cannabis, a source of drugs like hashish and marijuana, from a cemetery in Vietnam's capital, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday. Police took in Nguyen Manh Hung, 44, who heads the caretaker team at the cemetery in Hanoi's outer district of Hoang Mai, and Ho A Lau, 46, after the authorities found cannabis plants grown on a 25 square meter (82 square feet) patch, the Vietnam Labour Confederation-run Lao Dong newspaper said. Lau, a tribal man from the northern mountainous province of Son La bordering Laos, testified he obtained the seeds in Son La for cultivation from early 2008 and that the harvest would soon start. Vietnam has strict drug trafficking laws, including in some cases the death penalty, but it has long been used as a transit point for trade in heroin, hashish, opium, amphetamine pills and other illegal drugs.'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

'Mind's Eye' Influences Visual Perception

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80703145849.htm 'Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery—what we see with the "mind's eye"—directly impacts our visual perception. "We found that imagery leads to a short-term memory trace that can bias future perception," says Joel Pearson, research associate in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychology. and lead author of the study. "This is the first research to definitively show that imagining something changes vision both while you are imagining it and later on." "These findings are important because they suggest a potential mechanism by which top-down expectations or recollections of previous experiences might shape perception itself," Pearson and his co-authors write. It is well known that a powerful perceptual experience can change the way a person sees things later. Just think of what can happen if you discover an unwanted pest in your kitchen, such as a mouse. Suddenly you see mice in every dust ball and dark corner—or think you do. Is it possible that imagining something, just once, might also change how you perceive things?' [...]

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Long Trip: Magic Mushrooms' Transcendent Effect Lingers

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=long-t...ooms&sc=rss 'People who took magic mushrooms were still feeling the love more than a year later, and one might say they were on cloud nine about it, scientists report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. "Most of the volunteers looked back on their experience up to 14 months later and rated it as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives," comparing it with the birth of a child or the death of a parent, says neuroscientist Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who lead the research. "It's one thing to have a dramatic experience you say is impressive. It's another thing to say you consider it as meaningful 14 months later. There's something about the saliency of these experiences that's stunning." Griffiths gave 36 specially screened volunteers psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. The compound is believed to affect perception and cognition by acting on the same receptors in the brain that respond to serotonin, a neurotransmitting chemical tied to mood. Afterward, about two thirds of the group reported having a "full mystical experience," characterized by a feeling of "oneness" with the universe. When Griffiths asked them how they were doing 14 months later, the same proportion gave the experience high marks for transcendental satisfaction, and credited it with increasing their well-being since then. But some scientists noted that this psilocybin study was just the first trip on a long journey of understanding. "We don't know how far we can generalize these results," cautions neuroscientist Charles Schuster of Loyola University Chicago and a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "To attribute all of this to the drug, I think, is a mistake and to expect the same effects from simply taking the drug without this careful preparation in these kinds of people would be a mistake." Herbert Kleber, who directs the division of substance abuse at Columbia University also notes that it is difficult to assess the mushroom's impact without detailed information on how individual lives were changed. For example, it remains unclear from the study whether volunteers really were more altruistic or simply claimed to be. But the findings do seem to support reports of recreational users and what LSD guru and 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary made famous in his psychedelic lab at Harvard University.' [...]

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Drugs, phones wing their way to prisoners

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnough...oddlyEnoughNews 'A sharp increase in drugs and cellphones found inside a Brazilian prison mystified officials -- until guards spotted some distressed pigeons struggling to stay airborne. Inmates at the prison in Marilia, Sao Paulo state had been training carrier pigeons to smuggle in goods using cell phone sized pouches on their backs, a low-tech but ingenious way of skipping the high-tech security that visitors faced. "We have sophisticated equipment to search people when they go in, but they avoided this by finding another way to bring in cellphones and drugs," prison director Luciano Gamateli told Globo TV. Officials said the pigeons, bred and trained inside the prison, lived on the jail's roof, where prisoners would take their deliveries before smuggling the birds out again through friends and family.' [...]

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

General Anesthesia: Sleep During Surgery, Wake up in Pain

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=genera...leep&sc=rss 'Researchers studying the effects of general anesthesia recently made a startling discovery: the drugs used to knock out patients during surgery may lead to increased pain when they wake up. Doctors have known for decades that most general anesthetics may cause a temporary burning sensation when administered or swelling around the injection site. Similarly, inhaled agents can cause momentary coughing bouts, according to Gerard Ahern, a pharmacologist at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Now Ahern has discovered that some drugs used to put patients to sleep may also increase postoperative pain from the procedure itself by boosting the activity of a protein called TRPA1 on the surface of pain-sensing nerve cells. Ahern and his colleagues write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that anesthesiologists may be able to limit post-op pain by sticking to meds that do not have this effect. "By understanding the mechanisms for these noxious effects," says Hugh Hemmings, a professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, "it gives you a way to screen for new drugs that don't have these effects, but do produce anesthesia."'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Drugs in rugs

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnough...oddlyEnoughNews 'Drug traffickers in China's far west are smuggling heroin into the country woven into carpets imported from Afghanistan and Pakistan, state media said on Tuesday. Customs officials in Xinjiang, which borders both countries, have seized more than 30 carpets containing some 50 kg (110 lb) of heroin in the last several months, the official China Daily said. "The traffickers have become more sophisticated and are using new techniques," it paraphrased Wang Zhi, deputy director the General Administration of Customs' anti-smuggling bureau, as saying. "Wang said traffickers first inject heroin into plastic tubes of 1-2 mm diameter and wrap them with colorful natural or synthetic fibers to make them look like yarn. They then weave them into the carpet along with normal yarn," the report said. The new smuggling method was making detection harder as equipment normally used by customs' officers was not up to the task, the newspaper added.'

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Tryptamine!

http://www.genome.jp/dbget-bin/www_bget?rn+R02174 Got to buy me some SamE http://www.genome.jp/dbget-bin/www_bfind_s...ords=tryptamine

Yeti101

Yeti101

 

Psychotria colorata -

In searching for NMDA antagonists in nature, I came across this species. Research on it seems quite new (relatively). Planta Medica 2000; 66: 770-772 "Antinociceptive Profile of Hodgkinsine" To further understand the mechanism of analgesic activity and structural requirements of pyrrolidinoindoline alkaloids identified in Psychotria colorata, we here report the analgesic activity of the trimer hodgkinsine on thermal and chemical models of analgesia. Results show that hodgkinsine produces a dose-dependent naloxone reversible analgesic effect in thermal models of nociception, suggesting that activation of opioid receptors participates in hodgkinsine's mode of action. Hodgkinsine shows a potent dose-dependent analgesic activity against capsaicin-induced pain, indicating the participation of NMDA receptors in hodgkinsine-induced analgesia. Such a dual mechanism of action may be of interest for developing innovative analgesics. http://0-www.thieme-connect.com.library.ne...055/s-2000-9604 "Synthesis of All Low-Energy Stereoisomers of the Tris(pyrrolidinoindoline) Alkaloid Hodgkinsine and Preliminary Assessment of Their Antinociceptive Activity" The discovery that alkaloids isolated from Psychotria colorata Muell Arg (RUBIACEAE), a medicinal species traditionally used as an analgesic in the Brazilian Amazon,9 have a distinctive analgesic profile generated substantial interest.10-12 The mechanisms of action by which these alkaloids exert antinociceptive action were investigated by in vivo and in vitro techniques, particularly regarding their involvement with opioid and glutamatergic pathways.10,13-15 We reported that the natural alkaloid hodgkinsine (1) acts dose-dependently as a potent analgesic in mice.13 Hodgkinsine's effects in thermal models of nociception were naloxone reversible, suggesting that activation of opioid receptors is involved in its mode of action.13 Indeed, binding data revealed that hodgkinsine binds specifically to opioid receptors.15 Hodgkinsine also showed a potent dose-dependent analgesic effect in capsaicin-induced pain,13 suggesting the participation of NMDA receptors in its mode of action. http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/article.cgi/jo.../jo7013643.html If this isn't worth looking into, I don't know what is. One sourse has the common name as perpetua-do-mato, but this seems more commonly applied to Alternanthera brasiliana. AKA(?): # Cephaelis amoena Bremek. * Reference article Steyermark, J. et al. 1995. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Project. # Cephaelis colorata Willd. ex Roem. & Schult. * Reference article Steyermark, J. et al. 1995. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Project. On a side note, perhaps some more research (on our part, and in our own way) into neuro-protective plants such as those that protect against serotonin syndrome, might be very constructive. More to follow... Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotria_colorata http://www.springerlink.com/content/n03277u1l9h3h363/

Yeti101

Yeti101

 

Morphine Makes Lasting – and Surprising – Change in the Brain

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_B...-07/06-144.html ‘Morphine, as little as a single dose, blocks the brain’s ability to strengthen connections at inhibitory synapses, according to new Brown University research published in Nature. The findings, uncovered in the laboratory of Brown scientist Julie Kauer, may help explain the origins of addiction in the brain. The research also supports a provocative new theory of addiction as a disease of learning and memory. “We’ve added a new piece to the puzzle of how addictive drugs affect the brain,” Kauer said. “We’ve shown here that morphine makes lasting changes in the brain by blocking a mechanism that’s believed to be the key to memory making. So these findings reinforce the notion that addiction is a form of pathological learning.”‘

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

Heavy pot smokers shrinking their brains

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/200...mp;topic=latest ‘Australian researchers have found that long-term heavy use of marijuana may cause parts of the brain to shrink. Published in this month’s Archives of General Psychiatry, the study found that the hippocampus and amygdala were smaller in men who were heavy marijuana users compared to non-users. The study looked at 15 men heavy marijuana users, who had smoked at least five marijuana cigarettes daily for on average of 20 years. Brain scans showed that on average their hippocampus volume was 12% less and amygdala volume was 7% less than in the 16 men who were not marijuana users. The hippocampus regulates memory and emotion, while the amygdala plays a critical role in fear and aggression.’

Ed Dunkel

Ed Dunkel

 

More things to chase....

Polygala tenuifolia - Chinese Senega, Yuan Zhi The methanol fraction of an ethanolic extract from the roots of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. showed antagonistic action on neurotoxicity induced by glutamate and serum deficiency in PC12 cells. Bioassay-guided fractionation led to the isolation of six new triterpenoid saponins, onjisaponins V - Z, and Vg (1 - 6), together with ten known saponins (7 - 16). The structures of 1 - 6 were elucidated by spectroscopic and chemical methods. Screening results indicated that compounds 1 - 16 showed neuroprotective effects against serum deficiency and glutamate at the concentration of 10-5 mol/L. "Triterpenoid Saponins with Neuroprotective Effects from the Roots of Polygala tenuifolia" Planta Medica 2008; 74: 133-141 http://0-www.thieme-connect.com.library.ne.../s-2008-1034296 * amnesia * anxiety, often combined with the herbs Kava, Passionflower, Schisandra and Zizyphus * constrained emotions * dream-disturbed sleep, often combined with the herb Schisandra * excessive brooding * fear, often combined with the herb Schisandra * forgetfulness * insomnia, often combined with the herb Schisandra * mental disorientation * neuresthenia, often combined with the herb Schisandra * palpitations, often combined with the herbs Kava, Passionflower, Schisandra and Zizyphus * pent-up emotional states * restlessness Interesting, I wonder what the mechanism of protection from glutamate toxicity is? Is it an NMDA receptor antagonist? NMDA receptor antagonists include things like ethanol, K, PCP, DXM, Ibogaine etc. Not only this, but some NDMA antagonists have other actions on GABA, 5HT and opioid receptors. More research needed.

Yeti101

Yeti101

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