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Evaluating Safety and Efficacy of Herbal Treatment in Ulcerative Colitis

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Posted 8/7/2015 8:12 PM (GMT 0)
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02442960?recr=open&cond=colitis&cntry1=NA%3AUS&rank=42


Stanford hospital is doing some clinical trial with herbal supplements based on traditional chinese medicine. I wanted to know which herbs are being used and they did not disclose it. Is anyone participating in this trial and know which herbs are being used?
Posted 8/7/2015 9:42 PM (GMT 0)
I was going to participate in a trial once for something called KangJang (I think that's what it was called anyway). I didn't end up doing it though. This wasn't in SF. I am sure there are a lot of trials for these types of things. The one I was going to participate in was a LONG time ago. I am sure if it were miraculous, something would have happened with it by now.

Isn't your daughter in remission from FT? I wouldn't do anything new - if it ain't broken, don't fix it!
Posted 8/7/2015 10:45 PM (GMT 0)
The only entry in PUBMED by the researcher, S. Shah, is a comment on another article about an herbal extract for UC:

Plant extract: a natural immune booster for ulcerative colitis.

Academic Journal
(English) By: Shah SB, Gastroenterology [Gastroenterology], ISSN: 1528-0012, 2011 Oct; Vol. 141 (4), pp. 1525-6; Publisher: W.B. Saunders; PMID: 21871453, Database: MEDLINE Complete

The herb in the study she commented on was Andrographis paniculata (/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrographis_paniculata).

I do not know if she is planning to do a study on the same herb with a different extract, or if it is a related herb. I think it is the same herb because of the concerns about pregnancy/abortion.

I am going to get the full text of her comment next week, and see if it sheds any more light.

But a few things to note:

1) almost all of these herbal studies use an "extract" that may be much more concentrated than the herb.

2) some are dangerous. the herb mentioned above causes abortions. (the trial you mentioned excludes pregnant women, and requires males to promise to use condoms - so apparently even a small amount in sperm can threaten a pregnancy).

3) this particular trial is very preliminary. It is open label (subjects know they are getting the herb, and whether they are high or low dose), and there is no control group. The main purpose of this study is to check safety and to see if there is any reason to do more research.
Posted 8/8/2015 2:22 AM (GMT 0)
Why would you want to boost the immune system? It is overactive, thats why an immune system supressor works, right?
Posted 8/8/2015 3:11 AM (GMT 0)
The immune system is very complex so defining it in terms of suppressing it or boosting it is probably too much of an oversimplification to have real meaning. Sometimes the solution to a problem is doing the exact opposite of what you would think would logically work, not that I'm recommending anything.
Posted 8/8/2015 3:16 AM (GMT 0)
Gary is right to point out the "system" is complicated. There are many up-regulation parts/chemicals and many-down regulation parts. It would depend on which part was getting boosted. For example if a down-regulator became MORE responsive (boosted), that would lower immune/inflammation response.
Posted 8/9/2015 1:38 AM (GMT 0)
My daughter is currently in remission because of FMT. I just came across this CT and was thinking of this as backup option. We are not eligible because of age.

I just thought if stanford hospital is doing this then it may have a good chance of success.
Posted 8/10/2015 2:50 PM (GMT 0)
Many things are studied and only a few pan out. The chance of success might reasonably be a little higher than something no researchers are interested in - but not a lot higher, especially after you consider it might take a concentrated extract. Or, even other buffers to mitigate toxic side effects.

Anyway, the key text form the comment on the herbal extract HMPL-004, does suggest to me that Rd. Shah's extract (SA-100) is from the same plant:

"Finally, the safety data should
be analyzed with a degree of caution. This trial includes a
small number of patients exposed for a short period of
time, thus reducing the possibility of observing delayed or
rare adverse effects.
Tang et al provide encouraging results for nontraditional
therapy. However, we need to remember that UC is
a lifetime disease, and this drug was only used for 8 weeks.
Future directions would include studies of longer duration,
studies for the use of HMPL-004 for maintenance of
remission of UC, and studies for treatment in Crohn’s
disease."
Posted 6/21/2017 6:26 PM (GMT 0)
Does anyone know about this?
Posted 6/21/2017 7:10 PM (GMT 0)
about what specifically?

q
Posted 6/21/2017 7:30 PM (GMT 0)
The trial is actively taking patients and I wanted to know the herbal name being used.
Posted 6/21/2017 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
Maybe because if they disclose the name then participants would purchase it and start taking it on their own to see if it actually works for them avoiding the chance of taking a placebo.
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