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Mesembryanthemum Tortuosum
''Mesembryanthemum tortuosum'' (many synonyms, including ''Sceletium tortuosum'') is a succulent plant in the family Aizoaceae native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It is known as kanna, channa, kougoed (kauwgoed/ 'kougoed', prepared from 'fermenting' ''M. tortuosum'')—which literally means, 'chew(able) things' or 'something to chew'. Eight species related to ''M. tortuosum'' have also been placed in the genus ''Sceletium'': ''M. crassicaule'', ''M. emarcidum'', ''M. exalatum'', ''M. expansum'', ''M. archeri'' (''S. rigidum''), ''M. ladismithiense'' (''S. strictum''), ''M. tortuosum'' and ''M. varians''. History The plant has been used by South African pastoralists and hunter-gatherers as a mood-altering substance from prehistoric times. The first known written account of the plant's use was in 1662 by Jan van Riebeeck. The traditionally prepared dried plant was often chewed and the saliva swallowed, but it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as . Linnaeus was born in Råshult, the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his ' in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesembrenone2DACS
Mesembrenone is an alkaloid constituent of ''Sceletium tortuosum'' (Kanna) and minor constituent of Lampranthus aureus and Lampranthus spectabilis Similar to modern synthetic antidepressants, it is a potent (IC50 < 1 μM) selective inhibitor of the (SERT) (that is, a ; Ki = 27 nM) and also a (PDE4) |
Antidepressants
Antidepressants are a class of medication used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain conditions, and to help manage addictions. Common side-effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, headaches, sexual dysfunction, and emotional blunting. There is a slight increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior when taken by children, adolescents, and young adults. Discontinuation syndrome may occur after stopping any antidepressant which resembles recurrent depression. Some research regarding the effectiveness of antidepressants for depression in adults has found benefits, whilst other research has not. Evidence of benefit in children and adolescents is unclear. The twenty-one most commonly prescribed antidepressant medications are more effective than placebo for the short-term (acute) treatments of adults with major depressive disorder. There is debate in the medical community about how much of the observed effects of antidepre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flora Of The Cape Provinces
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century. The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) was first made by Jules Thurmann (1849). Prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately.Thurmann, J. (1849). ''Essai de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychoactive Plant
Psychoactive plants are plants, or preparations thereof, that upon ingestion induce psychotropic effects. As stated in a reference work: Psychoactivity may include sedative, stimulant, euphoric, deliriant, and hallucinogenic effects. Several hundred psychoactive plants are known. Some popular examples of psychoactive plants include '' Coffea arabica'' (coffee), '' Camellia sinensis'' (tea), ''Nicotiana tabacum'' (tobacco), and ''Cannabis'' (including hashish). Psychoactive plants have been used ritually (''e.g.'', peyote as an entheogen), medicinally (''e.g.'', opium as an analgesic), and therapeutically (''e.g.'', cannabis as a drug) for thousands of years. Hence, the sociocultural and economic significance of psychoactive plants is enormous. Examples of psychoactive plants In the table below, a few examples of significant psychoactive plants and their effects are shown. For further examples, see List of psychoactive plants. Botanical taxonomy Botanical taxonomy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnomedicine
Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine based on bioactive compounds in plants and animals and practiced by various ethnic groups, especially those with little access to western medicines, e.g., indigenous peoples. The word ''ethnomedicine'' is sometimes used as a synonym for ''traditional medicine''.Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu: ''Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices''. Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur / India 2008, , p. 440. Ethnomedical research is interdisciplinary; in its study of traditional medicines, it applies the methods of ethnobotany and medical anthropology. Often, the medicine traditions it studies are preserved only by oral tradition. In addition to plants, some of these traditions constitute significant interactions with insects on the Indian Subcontinent, in Africa, or elsewhere around the globe. Scientific ethnomedical studies constitute either anthropological research o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black South Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the ''Mother City'', it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located. Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape's population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine
The ''Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering alternative medicine published by Mary Ann Liebert. It was established in 1995 and is the official journal of the Society for Acupuncture Research. The editor-in-chief is John Weeks, who succeeded the founding editor, Kim A. Jobst. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 1.395. Reception In 2005 the BBC used a report published by the journal as the basis of a story claiming that homeopathy was effective for some patients. The article contradicted the findings of a study that had recently appeared in ''The Lancet'', reporting that homeopathy was ineffective. The methodology of the article in the ''Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine'' was criticized by pharmacologist David Colquhoun on his blog, saying that its questionnaire-based approach was "n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ataxia
Ataxia is a neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements that can include gait abnormality, speech changes, and abnormalities in eye movements. Ataxia is a clinical manifestation indicating dysfunction of the parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum. Ataxia can be limited to one side of the body, which is referred to as hemiataxia. Several possible causes exist for these patterns of neurological dysfunction. Dystaxia is a mild degree of ataxia. Friedreich's ataxia has gait abnormality as the most commonly presented symptom. The word is from Greek α- negative prefix+ -τάξις rder= "lack of order". Types Cerebellar The term cerebellar ataxia is used to indicate ataxia due to dysfunction of the cerebellum. The cerebellum is responsible for integrating a significant amount of neural information that is used to coordinate smoothly ongoing movements and to participate in motor planning. Although a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calcium Oxalate
Calcium oxalate (in archaic terminology, oxalate of lime) is a calcium salt of oxalic acid with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' varies from 1 to 3. Anhydrous and all hydrated forms are colorless or white. The monohydrate occurs naturally as the mineral whewellite, forming envelope-shaped crystals, known in plants as raphides. The two rarer hydrates are dihydrate , which occurs naturally as the mineral weddellite, and trihydrate , which occurs naturally as the mineral caoxite, are also recognized. Some foods have high quantities of calcium oxalates and can produce sores and numbing on ingestion and may even be fatal. Tribes with diets that depend highly on fruits and vegetables high in calcium oxalate, such as in Micronesia, reduce the level of it by boiling and cooking them. They are a constituent in 76% of human kidney stones. Calcium oxalate is also found in beerstone, a scale that forms on containers used in breweries. Occurrence Many plants accumu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxalic Acid
Oxalic acid is an organic acid with the systematic name ethanedioic acid and formula . It is the simplest dicarboxylic acid. It is a white crystalline solid that forms a colorless solution in water. Its name comes from the fact that early investigators isolated oxalic acid from flowering plants of the genus ''Oxalis'', commonly known as wood-sorrels. It occurs naturally in many foods. Excessive ingestion of oxalic acid or prolonged skin contact can be dangerous. Oxalic acid has much greater acid strength than acetic acid. It is a reducing agent and its conjugate base, known as oxalate (), is a chelating agent for metal cations. Typically, oxalic acid occurs as the dihydrate with the formula . History The preparation of salts of oxalic acid (crab acid) from plants had been known, at least since 1745, when the Dutch botanist and physician Herman Boerhaave isolated a salt from wood sorrel. By 1773, François Pierre Savary of Fribourg, Switzerland had isolated oxalic acid from i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
