Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I looked up the herbs mentioned in the previous post.  I found the most
useful information on:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/

This is an national institute of health website

Abstracts of articles follow:

Effects of Eleutherococcus senticosus extracts on hexobarbital metabolism in
vivo and in vitro.

Medon PJ, Ferguson PW, Watson CF.

Eleutherococcus senticosus (Siberian Ginseng) is widely exported from China
as a health food. Pharmacologically it has been classified as an adaptogen
and enzyme induction has been proposed as its mechanism of action. To
evaluate this hypothesis E. senticosus was administered to mice on an acute
(40-320 mg/kg i.p., X 1 day) or chronic (80-320 mg/kg i.p., X 4-5 days)
basis. Sleep latency and duration, in response to hexobarbital sodium (100
mg/kg i.p.), were determined either 1 h (acute and chronic) or 24 h
(chronic) following the last E. senticosus injection. E. senticosus produced
a sedative effect which decreased the sleep latency (47%) and increased
sleep duration (45-228%) following acute administration. A similar effect
was seen following chronic administration (125-202% increase in sleep
duration). E. senticosus was also shown to produce an inhibition (66%) of
hexobarbital metabolism, in vitro, as compared to controls. These data
support enzyme inhibition rather than enzyme induction as a mechanism for
the actions of Siberian Ginseng.

PMID: 6727401 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, pilot clinical trial of
ImmunoGuard--a standardized fixed combination of Andrographis paniculata
Nees, with Eleutherococcus senticosus Maxim, Schizandra chinensis Bail. and
Glycyrrhiza glabra L. extracts in patients with Familial Mediterranean
Fever.

Amaryan G, Astvatsatryan V, Gabrielyan E, Panossian A, Panosyan V, Wikman G.

Republican Children's FMF Center, Yerevan State Medical University, Yerevan,
Armenia.

Double blind, randomized, placebo controlled pilot study of ImmunoGuard--a
standardized fixed combination of Andrographis paniculata Nees.,
Eleutherococcus senticosus Maxim., Schizandra chinensis Bail., and
Glycyrrhiza glabra L. special extracts standardized for the content of
Andrographolide (4 mg/tablet), Eleuteroside E, Schisandrins and
Glycyrrhizin, was carried out in two parallel groups of patients. The study
was conducted in 24 (3-15 years of both genders) patients with Familial
Mediterranean Fever (FMF), 14 were treated with tablets of series A (verum)
and 10 patients received series B product (placebo). The study medication
was taken three times of four tablets daily for 1 month. Daily dose of the
andrographolide--48 mg. The primary outcome measures in physician's
evaluation were related to duration, frequency and severity of attacks in
FMF patients (attacks characteristics score). The patient's self-evaluation
was based mainly on symptoms--abdominal, chest pains, temperature,
arthritis, myalgia, erysipelas-like erythema. All of 3 features (duration,
frequency, severity of attacks) showed significant improvement in the verum
group as compared with the placebo. In both clinical and self evaluation the
severity of attacks was found to show the most significant improvement in
the verum group. Both the clinical and laboratory results of the present
phase II (pilot) clinical study suggest that ImmunoGuard is a safe and
efficacious herbal drug for the management of patients with FMF
[Preventive and treatment effect of composite Rhodiolae on acute lung injury
in patients with severe pulmonary hypertension during extracorporeal
circulation]

[Article in Chinese]

Xu KJ, Zhang SF, Li QX.

Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, General Hospital of Lanzhou Military
Region of PLA, Lanzhou 730050. familyxu@xxxxxxxxxxx

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possibility of early prevention and treatment
of acute lung injury by using composite Rhodiolae (CR) in patients with
severe pulmonary hypertension during extracorporeal circulation. METHODS:
Seventy-six patients with severe pulmonary hypertension screened out by
color 2D-Doppler ultrasonography were randomly divided into the treated
group (n = 40) and the control group (n = 36). The general treatment for the
two groups, including preoperational preparation, operational procedure and
conventional drug therapy, was the same. To the treated group, CR was
administered 4 g every day (half the dose in children) at 7-10 day before
and 5-7 day after the operation. The life signs, pulmonary ventilation
parameters, arterial blood gas analysis were monitored and blood levels of
TXB2, 6-keto-PGF1 alpha in both groups were determined in the fixed time
points. RESULTS: The various parameters in the treated group were all better
than those in the control group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), the occurrence rate
of acute lung injury and its mortality in the treated group were 7.5% (3/40)
and 0% (0/3) respectively, while in the control group were 19.4% (7/36) and
43% (3/7) respectively. CONCLUSION: CR has good preventive and treatment
effect in treating complicated acute lung injury during extracorporeal
circulation (cardiopulmonary bypass) in patients with pulmonary
hypertension.

Publication Types:
Clinical Trial
Randomized Controlled Trial

PMID: 14571608 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

These articles, which appear to be from reputable journals.  Agree that lots
of good effects happen when preparations of these herbs are administered.

Before you administer these close enough to a ride that residues may be in
the horses system, re-read rule 13.

Rule 13 prohibits performance enhancing substances.  These herbs definately
contain performance enhancing substances.  Noet that one abstract actually
calls one "...a safe and efficacious herbal drug ...".  Our rule 13 is
strict.  Calling a phsiologically active herb a supplement doesn't make it
allowable, any more than calling a Camel a horse makes it one.

Ed
Ed & Wendy Hauser
2994 Mittower Road
Victor, MT 59875

ranch@xxxxxxxxxxx
406.642.6490

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The very essence of our sport is doing the trail as quickly as practicable,
while keeping one's horse fit to continue.  Taking the clock out of the
equation makes it another sport altogether.  The challenge is how to keep
the sport what it is while honing our skills (both as riders and as those
in control roles) in detecting where "the edge" is for each horse so that
we don't cross it. 
~  Heidi Smith
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