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Phytotherapy and psychiatry: Bibliometric study of the scientific literature from the last 20 years.

García-García P, López-Muñoz F, Rubio G, Martín-Agueda B, Alamo C

Department of Pharmacology, University of Alcalá, C/ Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena 8, 28027 Madrid, Spain.

In diverse areas of therapy, including psychiatry, increasing interest in herbal medicine has been shown in recent years. Plants have a wide range of traditional uses, but only a few have been approved therapeutically. Moreover, to our knowledge, no bibliometric analyses on medicinal plants used in psychiatry have been carried out to date. We performed a bibliometric study on scientific publication related to phytotherapy in the psychiatry area during the period 1986-2006. Using the platform Embase.com, including the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases, we selected those documents including the descriptors plant*, herb*, phytotherapy*, phytomedicine*, pharmacognosy*, and psychiatry* (with all diagnostic criteria). The plants' indications were selected according to the PDR for Herbal Medicines. As a bibliometric indicator of the production, Price's Law was applied. Another indicator included was the national participation index (PI) for overall scientific production. A total of 21,409 original documents were obtained. Our data confirm a fulfilment of Price's Law related to scientific production on medicinal plants in Psychiatry. This was observed after we made a linear fit (y=135.08x-466.38; r=0.92) and another fit to an exponential curve (y=132.26e(0.1497x); r=0.99). The plants most widely mentioned in the psychiatric literature were St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum L.; n=937) and ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.; n=694). The countries with the highest percentages of documents were the United States (29.44%), Germany (9.41%) and Japan (8.75%), and those with highest proportional PI were India (IPa=0.935) and China (IPa=0.721). Productivity on medicinal plants in the psychiatry area increased during the period 1986-2006. Nevertheless, documents about therapeutic herbs in this medical field are still relatively few in number.

Published 27 June 2008 in Phytomedicine.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

Articles on St John's Wort published 19 June 2008:

Characterizing the metabolic fingerprint and anti-inflammatory activity of Hypericum gentianoides.   J Agric Food Chem, 56(12): 4359-66.

In this paper we characterize the metabolic fingerprint and first reported anti-inflammatory activity of Hypericum gentianoides. H. gentianoides has a history of medical use by Native Americans, but it has been studied very little for biological activity. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) analyses of a methanol extract show that H. gentianoides contains a family of over nine related compounds that have ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Effect of antidepressants on melatonin metabolite in depressed patients.   J Psychopharmacol.

Abstract Antidepressants increase melatonin levels, but it is still unclear whether this effect is related to the improvement of depressive symptoms or to unrelated pharmacological action of antidepressants. To answer this question, the effect of antidepressants on 6-sulphatoxymelatonin (aMT6s), the main melatonin urinary metabolite, was examined in drug-free depressed patients - most of them antidepressant-naive. aMT6s was evaluated in 34 depressed patients, before and after 8 weeks of placebo ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on St John's Wort published 16 June 2008:

Tomoeones A-H, cytotoxic phloroglucinol derivatives from Hypericum ascyron.   Phytochemistry.

Phloroglucinol derivatives tomoeones A-H (1-8) and three known compounds were isolated from leaves of Hypericum ascyron. Their structures were established based on spectroscopic analyses. They are all acylphloroglucinol derivatives possessing a spiro skeleton with geminal isoprenyl groups and a monoterpene moiety, and they are stereoisomers to each other at C-4 and C-13. They appear to be a class of phloroglucinol derivatives. Cytotoxicities of the isolated phloroglucinol derivatives against ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on St John's Wort published 11 June 2008:

Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort) for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents: a randomized controlled trial.   JAMA, 299(22): 2633-41.

CONTEXT: Stimulant medication can effectively treat 60% to 70% of youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet many parents seek alternative therapies, and Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort) is 1 of the top 3 botanicals used. OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy and safety of H. perforatum for the treatment of ADHD in children. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted between March 2005 and August 2006 at Bastyr ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on St John's Wort published 9 June 2008:

Cytotoxic effects of hyperatomarin, a prenylated phloroglucinol from Hypericum annulatum Moris subsp. annulatum, in a panel of malignant cell lines.   Phytomedicine.

The cytotoxic effects of hyperatomarin - a prenylated phloroglucinol isolated from Hypericum annulatum Moris subsp. annulatum were assessed in a broad spectrum of tumor cell lines originating from leukemias, lymphomas and solid malignancies. The tested compound exerted strong concentration-dependent cytotoxic effects (IC50 values ranging 0.14-15.7muM), comparable to and even outclassing in some cell lines those of the established anti-cancer drug daunorubicin. Exposure of different human tumor ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on St John's Wort published 2 June 2008:

Phloroglucinols with Antioxidant Activity and Xanthonolignoids from the Heartwood of Hypericum geminiflorum.   J Nat Prod.

A new phloroglucinol, hyperielliptone HA ( 1/ 1a), a new spirophloroglucinol possessing an unprecedented skeleton, hyperielliptone HB ( 2/ 2a), and two new xanthonolignoids, hyperielliptones HC ( 3) and HD ( 4), were isolated from the heartwood of Hypericum geminiflorum. Compounds 1/ 1a and 2/ 2a were obtained as tautomeric pairs. The structures and relative configurations of these compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. In biological testing, compound 2/ 2a revealed significant ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on St John's Wort published 26 May 2008:

Petiolins A-C, phloroglucinol derivatives from Hypericum pseudopetiolatum var. kiusianum.   Bioorg Med Chem, 16(10): 5619-23.

Two new phloroglucinol derivatives possessing chromane skeleton, petiolins A (1) and B (2), and a new phloroglucinol derivative containing a dihydrofuran ring, petiolin C (3), were isolated from aerial parts of Hypericum pseudopetiolatum var. kiusianum. The gross structures of 1-3 were elucidated by spectroscopic data, and the relative stereochemistry of 3 was elucidated by NOESY data. Petiolins A-C (1-3) showed modest cytotoxicity, while petiolin C (3) exhibited antifungal activity. [Abstract] [Full-text]

Phenolic compounds profiles during ex vitro acclimatization of micropropagated Hypericum polyanthemum.   Plant Physiol Biochem.

Accumulation of benzopyrans and total phenolic compounds were assessed in acclimatized field grown plants of Hypericum polyanthemum, an endemic species of southern Brazil, harvested at different developmental stages. The HPLC analysis of bioactive compounds 6-isobutyryl-5,7-dimethoxy-2,2-dimethylbenzopyran (HP1), 7-hydroxy-6-isobutyryl-5-methoxy-2,2-dimethyl-benzopyran (HP2) and 5-hydroxy-6-isobutyryl-7-methoxy-2,2-dimethyl-benzopyran (HP3) revealed that the three benzopyrans are accumulated ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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