Douglas Ochora

By Douglas Ongeri Ochora

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a widely cultivated plant due to its pharmacological properties and its use as a spice. The plant species enjoys a good reputation in most regions of the world mainly because of its anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antioxidant activities. To enhance these pharmacological properties, ginger is mostly used in combination. Drug combination therapy is also a worthwhile strategy for the prevention of various diseases. Therefore, the current chapter concerted on pharmacological activities of ginger combinations. The plant species has been combined with other plant extracts, pure compounds, and approved drugs for antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic, and antidepressant activities and also in herbal tea formulations. Most of these activities showed synergism with 50% inhibition concertation (IC50) values of less than 1. The highest activity was observed when ginger phytochemicals, shogaol, and gingerol derivatives were combined against prostate cancer cell lines with an IC50 value of 0.03. Interaction of different phytochemicals in ginger with other phytochemicals when used in combination account for the reported synergism. The observed synergism in most combinations depicts a potential use of ginger combinations in treatment and prevention of various diseases and disease conditions.

Part of the book: Ginger

By Douglas O. Ochora, Thrineshen Moodley and Rose Hayeshi

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a Mediterranean plant that has been used in various countries for the treatment of various diseases in traditional medicine for many generations. These reported medicinal properties of pomegranate are mainly attributed to the presence of various phytochemical compounds in the plant. Scientific literature search was done in PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Full articles published in English for the last 25 years were selected. Pomegranate juice is the widely studied product of a plant. This is because of its wide medicinal and dietary use. Approximately 500 pure compounds have been isolated and characterized from different parts of the plant species. Phytochemically, the juice, seeds, flowers, and peels of P. granatum are the most studied parts of the plant. Major phytochemical compounds isolated from the plant include alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, sterols, and terpenes. Most of the compounds isolated from P. granatum belong to ellagitannins (punicalagins) and gallotannins. Medicinally, the use of different parts of pomegranate for the treatment of different types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases is the most widely reported in both preclinical and clinical researches. The herb/food-drug interactions of pomegranate juice with approved drugs have shown that pomegranate juice has the potential to inhibit some drugs, especially those metabolized by cytochrome CYP3A and CYP2C9. The current chapter gives a broad overview of the phytochemical, pharmacological, and herb/food-drug interactions of pomegranate.

Part of the book: Medicinal Plants - Harnessing the Healing Power of Plants for Health [Working title]