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Tansy In The News
Saturday, February
26, 2011
You might have seen the global news coverage of our recent research
findings on Tansy. As hundreds of news articles all over the world have
picked up the story, we are obliged to put this information page to answer
the large volume of questions put forward to us by the public and the
media.
 ...See the media coverage of our findings...
Tansy
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Tansy is a common name for a herbaceous perennial plant known by its scientific
name as Tanacetum vulgare.
The plant belongs to the family Asteraceae and distributed
throughout temperate Europe and Asia where it
grows along roadsides, hedgerows and waste
places. Among the many traditional medicinal
uses of Tansy reported in the current literature
are those related to skin eruptions and related
conditions. While many scientific reports
published in recent years have shown the promise
of Tansy for some disease conditions, several areas of outstanding scientific researches
are yet to be addressed to validate the claimed
traditional uses. |
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Our Research On Tansy
Our (Dr Habtemariam's) research interest focus on the pharmacological and phytochemical evaluations of medicinal plants. During the past two decades,
our research group has provided scientific evidence for medicinal uses of various
European medicinal plants. Our research group has also
assisted many herbal medicine practitioners, suppliers and consumers who wished
to ascertain the quality of their crude herbal
products. As part of this ongoing effort to modernise traditional herbal
medicines, Tansy has been included in our
research projects. First we have shown that extracts obtained from the
aerial parts of Tansy possess potent antioxidant properties; an effect which is
of interest to wound healing properties. We have further identified the
active principles of the antioxidant compounds - these results are published in
a scientific journal: Natural
Product Communications, Volume 4, Number 11, Page No. 1561 - 1564.
In view of this finding, a comprehensive research on antiherpes activity study
became very relevant.
Herpes
Two forms of herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are
known to cause long-term latent infections with periods of recurring viral
replication. The common sites of infection are the lips, eyes, mucous membrane
of the oral cavity and the genitals. Incidence of herpes especially HSV-2 that
causes genital infection has been steadily increasing in recent years.
The ever increasing incidences of drug resistance together with
immunosuppressive illnesses such as AIDS have been the major problems associated
with the growing prevalence of the disease. As recently reported in
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2010), experimental vaccines intended to
prevent herpes has not proven to be effective. A novel drug which
addresses the above mentioned problems are therefore a long awaited blessing.
Our UK-Spanish Collaboration
In 2009, our (Dr Habtemariam's) research group has forged a research link
with Professor Francisco Parra
(Universidad de Oviedo Spain). Our studies
included the bioassay of crude extracts of the aerial parts of Tansy as well as
the underground rhizomatous parts. We have also included several fractions and
isolated compounds including parthenolide which has previously been reported for
its antiviral activities. We have shown that, compounds other than parthenolide were
responsible for the antiviral activities and our results were published in a
scientific journal: Phytotherapy Research, Volume
25, Number 2, pages
296-301. We are currently undergoing further
research on the chemistry and pharmacology of Tansy extracts and purified
compounds.
We are currently running various other
collaborative projects and work closely with colleagues in Africa, Australia, India,
Europe and North America. Our research projects cover a wide range
of disease conditions and we always welcome a collaborative
research call from interested groups in this field.
...See the media coverage of our findings...
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