Washington, DC-The room overflowed with physicians and others interested in the possibility of finding new epilepsy treatments from plants at the first special interest group meeting on herbs and botanicals. Steven Schachter, MD?, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School Osher Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, explained that herbal medicines are used for a variety of medical illnesses around the world. It is possible that some herbs might have active ingredients that could be used to control seizures. Most of these plants have not received much scientific study, but that is now changing as researchers at Harvard University and other academic centers conduct experiments to find out how, and if, these herbs and botanicals can stop epileptic activity in the brain.

Nikolaus Sucher, MD, is one of the researchers at Harvard Medical School who is studying herbs for epilepsy. Dr. Sucher lived in Hong Kong for seven years and became interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which relies heavily on plant, animal, mineral and even human ingredients to treat medical illness. Traditional Chinese Medicine prescriptions contain multiple ingredients designed to work together to combat sickness. Because of this ‘combination therapy’, it is difficult to know which ingredient is the ‘active’ one. One the other hand, it may be that all of the ingredients need to work together to effect a good outcome. Dr. Sucher has been able to determine that one prescription, ‘Tianma Gouteng Yin’, prescribed to ‘calm excessive endogenous wind’ (including epilepsy) has active ingredients that are neuroprotective and might be beneficial in epilepsy. Dr. Sucher plans on continuing his research.

Siegward-M. Elsas, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, has also been studying plants that might benefit people with epilepsy. He observed that epilepsy treatments are found in native North and South American herbs (Passiflora incarnata), Pacific native botanicals (Kava kava), Traditional Chinese Medicine (Piper nigrum), Indian (Ayurvedic) medicine (Withania somnifera), and Europe (Valerian). All of these plants are chemically active in the laboratory. Dr. Elsas explained that making drugs from these plants is challenging because each batch may have different strengths depending on where the plant grew and how healthy it is. There are also technical hurdles in conducting clinical trials. Dr. Elsas cautioned that herbs are not necessarily healthy; seizures may be triggered by Ephedra and the popular Ginkgo biloba, and Kava kava may cause liver damage. People with epilepsy should not rush to use herbal medicines that have not been fully tested.

?Dr. Schachter is the recipient of an Epilepsy Research Foundation Grant Award for his research, “In Vitro and In Vivo Testing of Herbal Extracts and Extract Derived Compounds for the Treatment of Epilepsy.”