Phyto-Compounds

In episode 2 of Phyting Words - Phyto-Compounds, we're joined by Evan Stephens, Lead Scientific Advisor at Medibis, and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. We discuss the cannabis plant, the compounds produced by the plant, and how they are recognised as powerful medicines. We also define the different varieties of cannabis and why this is important, along with plant health, terpenoids, and flavonoids.

Show notes and links: 

Wormwood (Artemisia annua) contains several compounds, one of which is artemisinin. In the 1970s it was demonstrated to have capacity to treat malaria. One of the scientists (Tu Youyou) responsible for the discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine many years later in 2015. Millions of lives have been saved through this discovery. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/summary/ Today some of the most effective therapies for malaria are still based upon this discovery in the 1970s.

There’s an opportunity to briefly make the distinction here between Pharmacognosy and other traditional plant therapies that may not have been substantiated with clinical or laboratory-based evidence.

Pharmacognosy is the study of plants or other natural sources as a possible source of drugs. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drugs, drug substances, or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources".[1]

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