Posted by Larry Hoover on December 19, 2003, at 19:32:36
In reply to Turmeric is a potent MAO-A inhibitor, posted by linkadge on December 19, 2003, at 9:39:48
> The spice turmeric is a potent MAOA inhibitor, with negligable affinity for MAOB. In studies, high doses of the suff were more potent than fluxotine in the forced rat swim test.
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> Biopsychiatry site seems down now but I will post the link when I can.
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> Why on earth don't drug companies do tests on these compounds to sinthesize effective antidepressants instead of searching years for a safe and effective drugs.
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> LinkadgeIf you're referring to this study, the lower dose of 140 mg/kg is rougly equivalent to daily doses of 10 grams per day of turmeric. That is enough to totally inhibit COX enzymes, and may cause extremely upset stomach.
I know where your thoughts are going, but there have been dozens of recent studies on this herb, and we may find that extracts are developed which concentrate the antidepressant compounds, while leaving the other stuff out. It takes a lot of work to sort this all out.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2002 Nov;83(1-2):161-5.
Antidepressant activity of aqueous extracts of Curcuma longa in mice.Yu ZF, Kong LD, Chen Y.
Institute of Functional Biomolecule, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
Curcuma longa (turmeric) is a well-known indigenous herbal medicine. The aqueous extracts, when administered orally to the mice from 140 to 560 mg/kg for 14 days, were able to elicit dose-dependent relation of immobility reduction in the tail suspension test and the forced swimming test in mice. The effects of the extracts at the dose of 560 mg/kg were more potent than that of reference antidepressant fluoxetine. The extracts, at the dose of 140 mg/kg or above for 14 days, significantly inhibited the monoamine oxidize A (MAO) activity in mouse whole brain at a dose-dependent manner, however, oral administration of the extract only at a dose of 560 mg/kg produced observable MAO B inhibitory activity in animal brain. Fluoxetine showed only a tendency to inhibit MAO A and B activity in animal brain in the study. Neither the extracts of C. longa nor fluoxetine, at the doses tested, produced significant effects on locomotor activity. These results demonstrated that C. longa had specifically antidepressant effects in vivo. The activity of C. longa in antidepression may mediated in part through MAO A inhibition in mouse brain.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:291571
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031219/msgs/291735.html