Anodyne Posted August 25, 2005 I'm in my last year of pharmacology, and have to pick any herbal med to write a paper about. It's to be along the lines of a summary paper, written by me, the underling, for an imaginary head-of-R&D-at-Pfizer-type boss. So a shortish summary about what it is, how it works (if known/relevant), how safe it is, and it is effective for any or all of it's claimed uses? It could also discuss how an extract or even single active compare to the whole plant, how fresh compares to dried/extracted, etc, etc. It's fairly open - we just have to pick something interesting and sum up some aspect of it's current/proposed therapeutic use in 2000 words or less. And obviously it has to be a med for which there's already a fair amount of literature, because the department is pretty fussy about what they'll accept as references (pretty much published scientific papers only). I've just met with my supervisor and mentioned kava & St. John's Wort to him, but he basically said "oh god, not another paper on SJW". He was a bit more enthusiastic about the kava because he's just applied for a grant to study it further, but that sort of makes it worse - if it's a field he's already interested in & working on, it could be really hard to write something he'd be happy with. Anyways, I just need some people to throw some ideas out. I've been given a week to come up with something before I just get assigned a herb. I'd be interested in studying marijuana properly, but that could be a bit overwhelming, both in sheer volume, but also trying trying to wade through the various biases that go with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Torsten Posted August 25, 2005 kava is a great idea, especially if you can cover some of the more recent research into the sulphur containing amino acid complexes and the hepatoxic alkaloid component in the aerial parts. The more these topics are discussed the better for the re-acceptance of the herb. How about sceletium and it's mesembrine type alkaloids. Not a huge volume of work, but most of it hard science so you don't have to wade through lots of subjective crap. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oxydiser Posted August 25, 2005 Fuck yeah, pharmacology is the most interesting subject I did throughout my BSc, I liked it so much I ended up being my major along with chemistry. Only thing I disliked about it was it was a little too lab-based for me, so I ended up going back to uni to start my MPharm about 5 weeks ago. I have a 10 minute presentation to give on a complementary medicine next week and was assigned some whacked out chinese herb that bored the shit from my arsehole. Seriously dude pick kava, I switched to it last week and it is a very interesting topic that has been well researched so there is no shortage of information in the literature (medline and sciencedirect yielded ~30 relevent journal papers). A section of the presentation I am giving has to detail the availabilty of our complementary medicine in Austraila. Looking at the TGA website the only thing I am certain of is that the TGA has made a royal cock-up of the kava scheduling situation in Aus. Could someone with an authority on the subject ( winks at Tort) please clarify the regulations? My understanding of the kava scene is Aus is such: Kava root is illegal to import without a licence and a permit for each shipment (all states except NT which is a bit stricter) Kava extracts/tablets are not allowed to be sold commercially in herbal stores and the like Kava in any form is illegal to import/possess/sell into WA [ 25. August 2005, 13:47: Message edited by: oxydiser ] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Happy Cadaver Posted August 25, 2005 I believe you can bring 2 kg on your person when you come in thru customs from OS, true? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Torsten Posted August 25, 2005 all of the above is correct - incl certain limits for personal import on your person, which is based like all other personal medicine imports on a 3 months supply. I am not sure what the restrictions are on selling kava extracts and tablets. However, every shop that sells kava needs to be a signatory to the "kava code". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mescalito Posted September 4, 2005 How about Kratom or Iboga? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Torsten Posted September 4, 2005 there are no provisions for personal use for these. ie, they are illegal in all quantities and by any import/possession mode. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
