Research highlights from the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research for Women’s Health: Black cohosh from the field to the clinic

Abstract

In 1999, the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois (UIC) at Chicago was funded to establish a Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The emphasis of the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research (CBDSR) is botanical dietary supplements (BDS) for women’s health. The Center’s research has focused on BDS that may improve women’s health and quality of life, specifically in the areas of menopause, premenstrual syndrome, and persistent urinary tract infections. Center investigators have overcome many challenges associated with botanical dietary supplements research, including acquiring and identifying plant species for investigation, isolating and identifying active constituents, elucidating the mechanisms of action of these botanicals, and conducting Phase I and Phase II clinical studies. Black cohosh [Actaea racemosa L. (Ranunculaceae)] has been used as a model to illustrate the steps involved in taking a botanical dietary supplement from the field, all the way to clinical trials. Bioassays are described that were necessary to elucidate the pertinent biological studies of plant extracts and their mechanisms of action. The Center has used an innovative multidisciplinary approach to this type of research, and thus has been very successful in fulfilling its specific aims.

Keywords::

• Actaea racemosa
• black cohosh
• botanical dietary supplements
• estrogen
• menopause
• multidisciplinary research
• serotonin

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a research grant from NIH (P50 AT000155) jointly funded by the Office of Dietary Supplements, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the Office for Research on Women’s Health, and the National Institute for General Medical Sciences. The black cohosh clinical trial product was developed in collaboration with Naturex, Inc. (South Hackensack, NJ) and Pharmavite LLC (Northridge, CA). A secondary clinical study, an additional study included in the Center’s Phase II clinical trial, was supported by grants (R21AT001868 and K01AT002321) from NIH/NCCAM.

This article was presented at the Symposium: “Plants in the Service of Human Health: Continuing Search for Plant-based Therapies” – Society for Economic Botany 48th Annual Meeting in Chicago at Lake Forest College, June 4, 2007.

Declaration of interest: The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agencies.