WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants - travolekar.ru

<strong>WHO</strong> <strong>monographs</strong> on selected medicinal plants
Berberine has been used therapeutically for the treatment of cutaneous
leishmaniasis, commonly referred to as “oriental sore”. It is administered
by subcutaneous injection near the site of the lesion (22–24). In patients
with leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania tropica, injection of a preparation
containing 2% berberine into the lesions was effective in the treatment
of cutaneous leishmaniasis (22, 23).
Adverse reactions
Berberine is well tolerated in humans in therapeutic daily doses of 0.5 g (61).
Contraindications
Cortex Phellodendron is contraindicated in cases of hypersensitivity or
allergy to the plant material.
Warnings
No information was found.
Precautions
General
No information was found.
Drug interactions
None reported. However, berberine, the major isoquinoline alkaloid occurring
in the crude drug, is reported to up-regulate the expression of the
human multidrug resistance gene coding for multidrug resistance transporter
(pgp-170), thus the treatment of tumours with berberine may result
in reduced retention of chemotherapeutic agents such as paclitaxel
(62, 63). In a randomized controlled clinical trial, 52 renal transplant recipients
were treated with ciclosporin A and 0.2 g berberine three times
daily for 3 months, while another 52 subjects received ciclosporin A
alone (64). For a pharmacokinetic study, six renal transplant recipients
were given a 3-mg/kg dosage of ciclosporin A twice daily before and after
oral co-administration of 0.2 g berberine three times daily (i.e. berberine
was given every 8 hours and cyclosporine every 12 hours) for
12 days. The results of this study showed that the trough blood concentrations
and the ratios of concentration:dose of ciclosporin A in the berberine-treated
group increased by 88.9% and 98.4%, respectively, compared
with those at baseline (p < 0.05). Thus, berberine can markedly
elevate the blood concentration of ciclosporin A in renal transplant recipients
in both clinical and pharmacokinetic studies. This combination
may allow a reduction of the dosage of ciclosporin A (64).
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