Role of honey in modern medicine

Use of honey has a very long history. Honey has been used since ancient time due to its nutritional and therapeutic values. There had been varied ways of consumption honey including its use as a sweetener and flavoring agent. Honey is produced all over the world. The most important nutriment of honey is carbohydrates present in the form of monosaccharides, fructose and glucose. Honey plays an important role as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial agent and augments the adherence of skin grafts and wound healing process. The role of honey has been acknowledged in the scientific literature and there is convincing evidence in support of its antioxidant and antibacterial nature, cough prevention, fertility and wound healing properties. However, its use has been controversially discussed and has not been well accepted in the modern medicine. The aim of this review was explore and highlight the role of honey in modern medicine.     

Curare and modern medicine

This deadly arrow-poison of South American Indians, concocted from the juices of a variety of plants, has found modern clinical use in the treatment of human ailments.     

Ribozymes: A modern tool in medicine

Since the discovery of ribozymes and self-splicing introns, it has been estimated that this biological property of RNA combined with other recombinant DNA technologies would become a tool to combat viral diseases and control oncogenes. These goals seem like a distinct possibility now. However, there is still a lot to be learned about the mobility of RNA inside the cells and the cellular factors that can impede ribozyme action in order to capitalize fully on the targeted RNA inactivation property of ribozymes. The most effective approach to maximize ribozyme function in a complex intracellular environment is to understand as much as possible about the intracellular fate of the RNA that is being targeted. As new techniques in cell biology become available, such understanding will be less problematic. Fundamental studies of ribozyme structure and mechanism of catalysis are flourishing both at the academic and industrial level and it can be expected that many new developments will continue to take place in these areas in the near future. Here, we review the design, stability and therapeutic application of these technologies illustrating relevant gene targets and applications in molecular medicine. Relevant problems in implementation of the technology, group I and II introns and the differences in applications, ribozyme structure and the application of this technology to virus attack and oncogene downregulation are discussed. Also some of the latest RNA-based technologies such as siRNA, RNA/DNA duplexes and RNA decoys have been introduced.     

Impact of natural products in modern drug development

Usage of natural substances as therapeutic agents in modern medicine has sharply declined from the predominant position held in the early decades of last century, but search for bioactive molecules from nature (plants, animals, microflora) continues to play an important role in fashioning new medicinal agents. With the advent of modern techniques, instrumentation and automation in isolation and structural characterisation, we have on hand an enormous repository of natural compounds. In parallel to this, biology has also made tremendous progress in expanding its frontiers of knowledge. An interplay of these two disciplines constitutes the modern thrust in research in the realm of compounds elaborated by nature. The purpose of this article is to underline how natural products research continues to make significant contributions in the domain of discovery and development of new medicinal products. It is proposed to present the material under several heads, each of which has made natural products research relevant in the search for new and better medication.     

Chemical and mechanical theories of digestion in early modern medicine

The aim of this paper is to survey the iatrochemists' and iatromechanists' explanations of digestion, from the sixteenth to the early decades of the eighteenth century. The iatrochemists substituted the Galenic thermal digestion with a series of chemical processes, the same as those produced in the laboratory. Jean Baptiste van Helmont marked a turning point in the chemical understanding of digestion, indicating the acid ferment in the stomach as the digestive agent. In the wake of van Helmont, an increasing number of physicians rejected the traditional Galenic theory of digestion, turning to the chemical reactions taking place in the ventricles. The iatrochemists saw nutrition as the outcome of the separation of an active invisible substance, i.e., spirits, from a thick inert covering. The emergence of the mechanical physiology, with its emphasis on the shape, size and motion of parts, did not bring about a decline of the chemical investigations of digestion. Descartes ruled out chemistry in the study of physiology, while a number of physiologists-notably in England-adopted a compromise between iatrochemical and mechanical theories. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the view of acid as an agent of gastric digestion became popular among physiologists. Late in the century, the acid-alkali doctrine spurred further investigations on digestion and nutrition.     

Harvey Cushing's ghosts: death and hauntings in modern medicine

The passing of Yale School of Medicine's 2010 Bicentennial occasions a moment of reflecting on the past, present, and future of medical education and research at Yale and beyond. Last June, a ribbon-cutting ceremony inaugurated the opening of the Cushing Center in the Cushing-Whitney Medical Library. Named after Harvey Cushing, an early 20th-century neurosurgeon and former Yale College alum, the dual education/exhibition space now houses hundreds of gross brain specimens constituting the Cushing Tumor Registry. Originally a personal collection, Cushing donated his numerous medical specimens, photographs, and other medical relics from his deathbed, relinquishing the brains to Yale only under the condition that a suitable space be erected to preserve the many specimens. Some 70 years later and after nearly being destroyed, Cushing's wish is fully realized: The once desiccated, hidden brains have been painstakingly restored and are now on view in the Cushing Center. The brains express Cushing's singular and spectral worldview as a surgeon, artist, athlete, soldier, book collector, and historian.     

Nanotechnology: convergence with modern biology and medicine

The worldwide emergence of nanoscale science and engineering was marked by the announcement of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in January 2000. Recent research on biosystems at the nanoscale has created one of the most dynamic science and technology domains at the confluence of physical sciences, molecular engineering, biology, biotechnology and medicine. This domain includes better understanding of living and thinking systems, revolutionary biotechnology processes, the synthesis of new drugs and their targeted delivery, regenerative medicine, neuromorphic engineering and developing a sustainable environment. Nanobiosystems research is a priority in many countries and its relevance within nanotechnology is expected to increase in the future.