Re: 1) Drosera X Dionaea 2) UK CPS AGM 3) Drosera Homeopath

From: Juerg Steiger (steiger@iae.unibe.ch)
Date: Fri Jan 31 1997 - 08:56:01 PST


Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 17:56:01 +0100
From: steiger@iae.unibe.ch (Juerg Steiger)
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg453$foo@default>
Subject: Re: 1) Drosera X Dionaea 2) UK CPS AGM 3) Drosera Homeopath

Jan Schlauer wrote (concerning Drosera):

>All parts of the plant (except the representants of subgen.
>Bryastrum) contain naphthoquinones like plumbagin or 7-methyljuglone.
>These were used to cure diseases of the respiratory tract like
>whooping cough. However, (if I remember well) the drug was found to be
>potentially sensitizing/allergenic. Therefore, "Herba Droserae" is no
>longer officinal in Europe. It is still used in Homeopathy (q.v.),
>and it has some fungicidal effects.

Jan, unfortunately Drosera-containing drugs are still on sale in Europe. I
know of two expectorants with PC extracts: 'Drosinula', a treacle against
mucous catarrh, containing extracts of Picea abies, Hedera helix, Drosera
rotundifolia, ethanol and other compounds (Producer: Bioforce Inc., 9325
Roggwil, Switzerland) and 'Pilka' drops against mucous cough and catarrh,
containing extracts of Thymus, Pinguicula and Drosera (Producer: Zyma Inc.,
1196 Nyon, Switzerland). The pharmacologically active compound is likely to
be trans-cinnamic acid, which is known to be a (moderately) effective
expectorant and which was proved to be present on the leaves of Pinguicula
vulgaris by T Gordonoff and K Christen (1960) and K Christen (1961). May be
it's also - as you suppose - the naphthoquinone and/or methyljuglone
compounds which have some therapeutic effect.

Some decades ago Drosera and Pinguicula were almost wiped out in some
regions of Switzerland as farmers collected them for the pharmaceutical
industry. Nowadays they are protected here and the industry seems to
introduce the plant material mainly from eastern Europe and other countries
(that's was I was told by an insider, but Ivo Koudela believes that
industrial collection of Drosera is no longer possible at least in the
Czech and Slovak Republics).

Unfortunately the increasing number of people which (concerning their use
of medicaments) are 'against chemistry' and 'for nature' helps to reduce
the existence of many rare wild plants including some CP. I am not shure
whether tissue cultured mass production of Pings or Droseras would be
financially attractive for a pharma producer as long as wild plant
collection (which usually is cheaper) is allowed somewhere. As some
disciples of phytotherapy are fanatics it is likely that measures of the
authorities to forbid the production of drugs with rare plant compounds
would - or at least could - result in increased publicity and involuntary
PR for such medicaments among the public at large.

Kind regards Juerg

___________________________________________________
Juerg Steiger, Institut fuer Aus-, Weiter- und Fortbildung IAWF
University of Bern, Inselspital 37a, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland
Office: +41 31 632 9887 Fax: +41 31 632 9871

 



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