Science: Uncovering the Mystery of Chinese Medicine

,22
the U.Sjournal Science, headlined "Uncovering the Mystery of Chinese Medicine," reported on China's upcoming herb group project and some of the controversies surrounding itDalian, China - genomics,proteomics,metabolomics..Herb heology? In the latest attack to uncover the biochemical secrets of nature, a Chinese team in the coastal city is embarking on a 15-year plan to try to identify ingredients for herbal remedies that have been used in China for centuriesThe herb group project is the latest - and most ambitious - attempt to modernise Chinese medicineThese ancient prescriptions - as many as 400,000,use 10,000 herbs and animal antidotes - are the treatments that many in China choose, often the only onesIn the 1970s, researchers inspired by traditional Chinese medicine discovered artemisinin as a good antimalarial drugBut the reputation of traditional Chinese medicine has been badly damaged by its unreliable efficacy and serious side effects, leading critics to denounce it as an outdated folk medicine"Traditional Chinese medicine is not based on science, but on metaphysics, witchcraft and hearsay," said Fang Yimin, a biochemist who takes the pseudonym Fang Zi, who is china's scientific police He described the herb group program as a "waste of research funding" To counter critics of Chinese medicine, the herb substance group plans to use high-throughput screening , toxicity tests and clinical trials to identify active ingredients and toxic contaminants in commonprescriptions "We need to make sure that Chinese medicine is safe and show that it's not just artemisinin," said Godean, who is in charge of the Chinese medicine modernization program at Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, but is not involved in the herb group program The initial targets are of cancer, liver and kidney diseases, as well as other diseases that are difficult to treat with Western medicine
such as diabetes and depression The Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, one of the largest and most well-funded research institutes in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has received a $5 million start-up fund to develop purification methods, and the Ministry of Science and Technology is reviewing the plan to include it as part of a $75 million innovation plan for the next five-year plan, which begins 2010 This spring,'s Xiangshan conference in Beijing, the equivalent of China's Gordon Academic Conference, will hold a planning meeting for this purpose Several powerful figures in the Chinese medicine industry have backed the plan "It's time to start this project, " said Chen Kaixian, a chemist and president of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Hui Yongzheng, director of the Psychology at the Shanghai Chinese Medicine Innovation Research Institute, said pharmaceutical companies should be interested in the herb group program , because it can identify many candidatedrugs In many parts of the world
traditional medicine prescriptions are passed down from generation to generation through dictation But in in China, doctors more than 2,
thousand years ago have begun writing pharmacopeia Although Western medicine in big cities has largely replaced the of Chinese medicine, many Chinese still believe that Chinese medicine is effective as a preventive medicine and treatment of chronic diseases, and Chinese in rural areas still rely on it "Most of us eat Chinese medicine when we feel unwell, " says Liang Xinxuan of The Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics Since mao Zedong's time, the Chinese government has been strongly supportive of Chinese medicine, in part because it has not been able to provide western medicine to the public Chinese media have so far tabooly referred to the of Chinese medicine as pseudoscience "For many Chinese, criticizing Chinese medicine is unthinkable, almost like treason, " Fang said Proponents insist that Chinese medicine can provide many things But with every successful claim of Chinese medicine, there are reports of adverse reactions , from natural toxic ingredients or from pollutants such as pesticides The dose of traditional Chinese medicine is also difficult to determine, as the efficacy of the prescription varies according to the origin of the herbal medicine and the time of collection The quality of the drug can vary from manufacturer to batch "That's why a lot of people don't trust Chinese medicine, " Says Godean Quality control is a primary concern in the modernization of Chinese medicine The herb material group plans to take modernization to a whole new level The plan was first proposed by Liang Xinxuan, who believes that many Chinese medicines are effective "The problem is that we don't know why it works," he said The main obstacle is the complexity of the prescription As an example, Liang Xinxuan showed a color map of a prescription for removing muscle pain, "red flower oil" In many samples processed by chemists, a peak usually represents a compound, Liang said But for safflower oil, a peak is a lot of compounds, and fractionation produces more multi-compound peaks, like Russian puppets Liang said safflower oil is made up of at least 10,000 compounds: "We only know 100 "
face this complexity, "we have to invent new methodologies, " Liang said "This is the battleground of the herb material group program." First, his 45-person team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics is developing a new separation medium Herbs are broken down into "multi-components": similar ingredients are grouped into groups To determine which substances are beneficial or toxic, his team plans to design herb chips, where compounds are screened based on their binding ability with key peptides The expanded herb group program will involve people from many research institutions at home and abroad The herb substance group program has hidden dangers One is the fear that Western pharmaceutical companies will develop huge-selling drugs by retrofitting the compounds identified by the program, skimming the spoils To counter this possibility, Godean said, "We encourage scientists not to rush into publishing papers and to make structural modifications (
identified drug candidates)." "The team then patented a group of compounds with similar structures Not all Chinese medicine practitioners accept the demystication of Chinese medicine "Some people worry that tradition will be lost, " Chen said But Hui Yongzheng said that "in order to reconcile the western medicine knowledge-oriented interpretation method and the Chinese medicine experience-oriented induction method", modernization is necessary Arkko had another view: "Can you combine astrology and astronomy, alchemy and chemistry?" It never worked "
Hui Yongzheng insists that Chinese medicine can live with Western medicine Liang hopes that his herb material group plan will prove Hui Yongzheng right (
Arkzi)