Cooper, Edwin L.

Hecht, Susanna B.

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

English

PubMed

Edwin L. Cooper

Susanna B. Hecht

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Advance Access Publication 3 August 2005 eCAM 2005;2(3)409–410
doi:10.1093/ecam/neh108
Meeting Report
Latin American Center Symposium on Environment and Health:
Exploring Natural Products
April 19, 2005, Moss Auditorium, Room A2-342 Marion Davies Children’s
Clinic (MDCC) Center For Health Sciences
Edwin L. Cooper1 and Susanna B. Hecht2
1Laboratory of Comparative Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine
at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1763, USA and 2UCLA School of Public Affairs,
5270 Public Policy Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656, USA
This will be an interdisciplinary one-day symposium that
should be of great interest to biologists, especially botanists,
biomedical researchers, practitioners of complementary and
alternative medicine, and public health workers. What do the
forests in Venezuela and Brazil and plants from California
yield as natural products that can be exploited as alternative
therapies for the benefit of health? The popular press (e.g.
every Monday, the LA Times health section gives an example
of some kind of ‘cure’) is a good source of information. Thus
there is an ever-growing awareness of the possibility of using
such natural products in place of other drugs. Most important,
there is an attempt to place these products within the realm
of solid science through the publication of evidence-based
reports. The symposium will be organized around three inter-
national experts who will give formal presentations from
9:00 to 12:00 h. After a no-host two-hour lunch, we will recon-
vene from 14:00 to 17:00 h for a roundtable discussion. There
is no charge for participation and everyone is welcome.
The Systemic Theory of Living Systems and
Relevance to CAM Part I: The Theory
Jose´ A. Olalde Rangel
Adaptogenic Educational Medical Centers and Venezuelan
Association of Systemic Medicine, Caracas, Venezuela
‘The Systemic Theory of Living Systems’ is being published
in several parts in eCAM. The theory is axiomatic. It origin-
ates from the phenomenological idea that physiological
health is based on three factors: integrity of its structure or
organization, O, functional organic energy reserve, E, and
level of active biological intelligence, I. From the theory is
derived a treatment strategy called systemic medicine (SM).
This is based on identifying and prescribing phytomedicines
and/or other medications that strengthen each factor. Energy-
stimulating phytomedicines increase available energy and
decrease total entropy of an open biological system by provid-
ing negative entropy. The same occurs with phytomedicines
that act as biological intelligence modulators. They should be
used as the first line of treatment in all ailments, since all
pathologies, by definition, imply a higher than normal organic
entropy. SM postulates that the state of health, H, of an indi-
vidual is effectively equal to the product of the strength of
each factor H ¼ O · E · I. SM observes that when all three
factors are brought back to ideal levels, patients begin the
recovery to normal health. The systemic solution is definitely
environmental since it is also epidemiological. If we enhance
epidemiology, we make better our environment.
Ethnopharmacology as Source of New Drug
Paradigms: Examples from Amazonian
Traditional Medicines and Implications for
Developing Innovative Psychoactive Drugs
Elaine Elisabetsky
Laborato´rio de Etnofarmacologia, Departamento de Farmaco-
logia, ICBS, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,
Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
The pharmaceutical industry regards medicinal plants
as potential sources of unusual bioactive molecules that
potentially bear innovative mechanisms of action. For allo-
pathic drug development, even when traditional formulations
For reprints and all correspondence: Edwin L. Cooper, Distinguished
Professor and Editor-in-Chief, eCAM. Email: cooper@mednet.ucla.edu
 The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access
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are taken into consideration, traditional medical systems are
very rarely regarded in the same way. The herbal industry
is more likely to accommodate innovations and to accept
unconventional concepts of health/disease, maintenance/
treatment and drug mode of action, thereby eventually generat-
ing useful clinical data. Despite its history, pharmacology as a
discipline has been refractory to the potential contribution of
ethnopharmacology in terms of different paradigms for drug
mode of action or usage. The complex patterns frequently
found in pharmacological studies of medicinal plant extracts
suggest that the effects of plant drugs may often be based on
a more diverse or complex pharmacodynamic basis than the
common drug–effect relationships. In fact, pharmacological
properties and clinical effects observed with herbal drugs
may result from effects of more than one active ingredient,
from drug interactions among ingredients, from active ingredi-
ents possessing multiple mechanisms of action or even from
interference with targets not yet recognized by the current
biomedical understanding of cell biology modulation. This
presentation focuses on the psychopharmacological profiles
of a variety of traditional Amazonian medicines to explore
newer paradigms of psychotropic drug action and therapy. It
is suggested that the understanding of traditional medical con-
cepts of health and disease in general, and traditional medical
practices in particular, can lead to true innovation in paradigms
of drug usage and drug development.
Chumash Healing
James D. Adams Jr1 and Cecilia Garcia2
1Department of Molecular Pharmacy and Toxicology, Univer-
sity of Southern California, 1985 Zonal Avenue, PSC 508,
Los Angeles CA, USA and 2Granada Hills, CA, USA
Chumash healing begins with prayer. The spirit must be
healed first. When the spirit is well, the body can be healed.
Plants can be used to heal the spirit and the body. The authors
will discuss white sage, black sage, chia, mugwort, California
sagebrush, yerba santa, California jimson weed, California
tobacco, California bay and perhaps other plants. White sage
is a spirit plant that should be used every day to soothe and
calm the spirit and the body. Black sage can be used against
pain. Chia can be used to restore strength. Mugwort should
be used to promote dreaming and sleep. It can also be used
at menopause. California sagebrush can bring back pleasant
memories. Yerba santa should be used against breathing prob-
lems, colds, flu and other respiratory problems. California
jimson weed can be used to protect the spirit. It can be used
to help people adjust to the stages of life. California tobacco
is used to consecrate prayers. It is also used to decrease hun-
ger. California bay can be used against pain and even against
migraine headaches. The authors will discuss techniques to
keep the spirit and the body healthy, thereby preventing
disease.
410 Meeting report
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Latin American Center Symposium on Environment and Health: Exploring Natural Products

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Latin American Center Symposium on Environment and Health: Exploring Natural Products: April 19, 2005, Moss Auditorium, Room A2-342 Marion Davies Children's Clinic (MDCC) Center For Health Sciences

Latin American Center Symposium on Environment and Health: Exploring Natural Products: April 19, 2005, Moss Auditorium, Room A2-342 Marion Davies Children's Clinic (MDCC) Center For Health Sciences

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