Herbal medicines have played an essential role in the management and treatment of various diseases. Typically, herbal medicines are chemical complex. However, the related pharmacological and pharmacokinetic studies are still far behind synthetic medication.
Multi-compound pharmacokinetic research on complex herbal medicines has facilitated uncovering herbal medicines (their unchanged and/or metabolized forms) with significant levels in general circulation (i.e., systemic exposure) and the gut lumen (i.e., gut-luminal exposure) after dosing the medicine. These essential compounds are capable of gaining access to the target of therapeutic action. Therefore, understanding pharmacokinetics and the disposition of the critical compound is vital in evaluating batch-to-batch consistency, therapeutic effects, adverse effects, and herb-drug interaction potential of herbal medicines. In addition, therapeutic regimens combining synthetic drugs with herbal medicines represent a promising strategy to manage multifactorial diseases. Such combination exhibits distinct mechanisms of action and improves the pharmacodynamic effect.
For complex herbal medicine, pharmacokinetic research provides a practical approach to identifying potentially important compounds, i.e., those responsible for therapeutic effects, adverse effects, and herb-drug interactions. Therefore, a more detailed understanding of herbal medicines’ pharmacokinetics is essential. This is of particular importance in cases where herbal medicine is added to conventional therapy. The impact of such addition on therapeutic outcome needs to be understood, including the pharmacokinetic herb-drug interaction (mediated by drug-metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters, etc.). Evaluating pharmacokinetic effects and herb-drug interactions of the important compounds and exploring their associated molecular mechanisms will help define conditions for the safe use of herbal medicines.
This Research Topic aims to attract innovative original contributions in the pharmacokinetics of herbal medicines, herb-drug interactions, and their associated molecular mechanisms. We welcome Original Research and Review articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following sub-topics:
? Screening bioactive compounds from the herbal medicines in vivo and in vitro
? Evaluating pharmacokinetics of herbal medicines and their bioactive compounds
? Exploring molecular mechanisms underlying pharmacokinetic interactions of herb-drug and herb-herb interactions
? Assessing beneficial or detrimental effects of herb-drug and herb-herb interactions
? Identifying potential perpetrator inhibitors or victim substrates of herb-drug interactions
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All the manuscripts submitted to the collection will need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).