Oils, Volatile

This is the second of two papers which review issues concerning complementary medicines. The first reviewed the extent of use of complementary medicines, and issues related to the regulation and pharmaceutical quality of these products; the second considers evidence for the efficacy of several well-known complementary medicines, and discusses complementary-medicines pharmacovigilance.

INTRODUCTION: More than half of pregnant women suffer from nausea and vomiting, which typically begins by the fourth week and disappears by the sixteenth week of pregnancy. The cause of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is unknown, but may be due to the rise in human chorionic gonadotrophin concentration. In 1 in 200 women, the condition progresses to hyperemesis gravidarum, which is characterised by prolonged and severe nausea and vomiting, dehydration, and weight loss.

INTRODUCTION: More than half of pregnant women suffer from nausea and vomiting, which typically begins by the fourth week and disappears by the sixteenth week of pregnancy. The cause of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is unknown, but may be due to the rise in human chorionic gonadotrophin concentration. In 1 in 200 women, the condition progresses to hyperemesis gravidarum, which is characterised by prolonged and severe nausea and vomiting, dehydration, and weight loss.

Plant-based repellent formulations for honeybees play an important role in the bee management. For this purpose, the essential oil of an Indian medicinal plant, Terminalia chebula, commonly known as Myrobalan, was isolated for the first time. Hitherto unknown chemical constituents of the essential oil were determined by GC/MS. The repellent activity of formulations of the essential oil, tested towards the Indian honeybee Apis florea, was found to be dose dependent.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to test a motivational interpretation of placebo responding using two different types of placebo therapy, one using flower essences and the other a nonspecific psychological therapy. The motivational concordance interpretation is that therapeutic rituals that are consistent with self-defining or self-actualizing goals have a nonspecific therapeutic benefit independently of expectancy.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The oleo gum resin of Gardenia lucida is commonly employed in traditional medicine to treat multiple ailments, including epilepsy and mania. The essential oil isolated from it was screened for CNS activities to check if it is responsible for the claims made regarding the traditional use of the oleo gum resin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The hypnotic and anticonvulsant activity was assessed by pentobarbitone induced hypnosis and convulsant models-Maximum electroshock (MES) and Pentylene tetrazole (PTZ) respectively.

This study investigated the hypnotic, anti-convulsant and anxiolytic effects of 1-nitro-2-phenylethane (BPNE) obtained from the oil of Dennettia tripetala G. Baker (Annonaceae) and established its mechanism of action. The essential oil (EO) from the leaf, fruit and seed was obtained by hydrodistillation, followed by isolation of BPNE purified to 99.2% by accelerated gradient chromatography on silica, and identified by NMR and GC-MS. The pure BPNE and EO of the dried seed (93.6%) were comparatively evaluated for hypnotic, anticonvulsant and anxiolytic effects in mice.