Immunomodulatory Agents from Plants

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Search for potent immunostimulating agents from plants and other natural sources

   • Hildebert Wagner, Stefan Kraus, Ksenija Jurcic

   Pages 1-39

3. Chemistry, analysis and immunological investigations of Echinacea phytopharmaceuticals

   • Rudolf Bauer

   Pages 41-88

4. Immunologically active polysaccharides from Echinacea purpurea plant and cell cultures

   • Andreas C. Emmendörffer, Hildebert Wagner, Marie-Luise Lohmann-Matthes

   Pages 89-104

5. Clinical investigations of Echinacea phytopharmaceuticals

   • Dieter Melchart, Klaus Linde

   Pages 105-118

6. Benefit and risks of the squeezed sap of the purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) for long-term oral immunostimulant therapy*

   • Michael J. Parnham

   Pages 119-135

7. Low-molecular weight compounds with complement activity

   • Luc A. C. Pieters, Tess E. De Bruyne, Arnold J. Vlietinck

   Pages 137-160

8. Complement-activating polysaccharides from medicinal herbs

   • Haruki Yamada, Hiroaki Kiyohara

   Pages 161-202

9. Lentinan and other antitumoral polysaccharides

   • Yukiko Y. Maeda, Goro Chihara

   Pages 203-221

10. Mistletoe lectins as immunostimulants (chemistry, pharmacology and clinic)

    • Rainer Samtleben, Tibor Hajto, Katarina Hostanska, Hildebert Wagner

    Pages 223-241

11. Saponins as immunoadjuvants and immunostimulants

    • Marie-Aleth Lacaille-Dubois

    Pages 243-272

12. Garlic as an immunostimulant

    • Eikai Kyo, Naoto Uda, Shigeo Kasuga, Yoichi Itakura, Hiromichi Sumiyoshi

    Pages 273-288

13. Immunostimulants in Ayurveda medicine

    • Sharadini A. Dahanukar, Urmila M. Thatte, Nirmala N. Rege

    Pages 289-323

14. Immunostimulants in traditional Chinese medicine

    • Pei-Gen Xiao, Chang-Xiao Liu

    Pages 325-356

15. Back Matter

    Pages 357-372

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The human immune system, despite having its own sophisticated defence mecha­ nisms, is inferior to bacteria and viruses with respect to adaptability. Furthermore, our immune system is increasingly exposed to detrimental effects, that is immuno­ suppressive environmental consequences, unhealthy living, and chronic illnesses. Excessive chemotherapy threatens our immune system even further. This situation demands compensatory prophylactic therapeutic regimes. One of these - specific immunostimulation - is more difficult to achieve than the immunosuppression cur­ rently used in transplantation surgery and the medical treatment of autoimmune dis­ eases. The earliest attempts to develop suitable medication for immunostimulation were based on traditional remedies which embodied the accumulated experience of several centuries. Medicinal plants are already being used prophylactically as stan­ dardized and efficacy-optimized preparations for the treatment of various recur­ rent infections, or in combination with chemotherapeutics in standard medical practice. In order to rationally apply immunostimulants of plant origin, however, it is necessary to search for the active principles of these substances and to produce them in a pure form. Because suitable screening methods have become available only recently, research in this field is in its very beginning. Further progress can be expected from systematic basic research on the mechanisms underlying immunomodulation. This also applies to verification of clinical efficacy, which is a prerequisite for the acceptance of medications with purported immunostimulatory properties.

• alternative medicine
• cell
• chemistry
• clinic
• drugs
• medicine
• oncology
• pharmaceutical industry
• pharmacology
• plant
• polysaccharide
• research
• therapy

• Institut für pharmazeutische Biologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany

  H. Wagner

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