Health
Western medicine studies Eastern herbal remedy for jaundice
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 26, 2004
Jaundice in infants is common and, in Western nations, is usually treated with exposure to light. But a study in the Jan. 1 Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that a drug therapy could be on the horizon.
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, demonstrated that a Chinese herbal tea remedy for jaundice, called yin zhi huang, activates a liver receptor that enhances the clearance of bilirubin. YZH was "boiled down" to one component: 6,7-dimethylesculetin, which binds to and activates the hepatic nuclear receptor CAR and its target genes, leading to increased clearance of bilirubin.
"This is a wonderful example of knowledge gained by applying the Western scientific method to an Eastern herbal remedy," said Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, in an accompanying commentary. "It will be very exciting if a pure compound emerges from the tea leaves as a pharmacological therapy for neonatal jaundice that is complementary to the current Western practice of phototherapy."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/01/26/hlbf0126.htm.
