Title

Pharmacovigilance: Effects of herbal components on human drugs interactions involving Cytochrome P450

Authors

Akansha Saxena¹, Kumar Parijat Tripathi², Sudeep Roy³, Feroz Khan^4,* and Ashok Sharma⁵

Affiliation

¹Bioinformatics and In Silico Biology Division, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Lucknow 226015 (UP), India

Email

f.khan@cimap.res.in; * Corresponding author

Article Type

Current Trends

Date

received November 9, 2008; accepted December 1, 2008; published December 31, 2008

Abstract

Cytochrome P450 (CYP P450) enzymes are a superfamily of mono-oxygenases that are found in all kingdoms of life. The CYP P450 enzymes constitute a large superfamily of haem-thiolate proteins involved in the metabolism of a wide variety of both exogenous and endogenous compounds. The CYP activities have been shown to be involved in numerous interactions especially between drugs and herbal constituents. The majority of serious cases of drug interactions are as a result of the interference of the metabolic clearance of one drug by yet another co-administered drug, food or natural product. Gaining mechanistic knowledge towards such interactions has been accepted as an approach to avoid adverse reactions. The inductions and inhibition of CYP enzymes by natural products in the presence of a prescribed drug has led to adverse effects. Herbal medicines such as St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), garlic (Allium sativa), piperine (from Piper sp.), ginseng (Ginseng sp.), gingko (Gingko biloba), soya beans (Glycine max), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and grape fruit juice show clinical interactions when co-administered with medicines. This review documents the involvement of CYP enzymes in the metabolism of known available drugs and herbal products. We also document the interactions between herbal constituents & CYP enzymes showing potential drug-herb interactions. Data on CYP450 enzymes in activation (i.e. induction or inhibition) with natural constituents is also reviewed.

Keywords

Cytochrome P450; CYP; Herb-drug interactions; inhibition; induction; natural products; natural ingredients; phytomolecules

Citation

Saxena et al., Bioinformation 3(5): 198-204 (2008)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.