Research Centre for Optimal Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK.
GW pharmaceuticals, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Phytother Res. 2020 Aug;34(8):1868-1888. doi: 10.1002/ptr.6654. Epub 2020 Mar 12.
Medicine has utilised plant-based treatments for millennia, but precisely how they work is unclear. One approach is to use a thermodynamic viewpoint that life arose by dissipating geothermal and/or solar potential. Hence, the ability to dissipate energy to maintain homeostasis is a fundamental principle in all life, which can be viewed as an accretion system where layers of complexity have built upon core abiotic molecules. Many of these compounds are chromophoric and are now involved in multiple pathways. Plants have further evolved a plethora of chromophoric compounds that can not only act as sunscreens and redox modifiers, but also have now become integrated into a generalised stress adaptive system. This could be an extension of the dissipative process. In animals, many of these compounds are hormetic, modulating mitochondria and calcium signalling. They can also display anti-pathogen effects. They could therefore modulate bioenergetics across all life due to the conserved electron transport chain and proton gradient. In this review paper, we focus on well-described medicinal compounds, such as salicylic acid and cannabidiol and suggest, at least in animals, their activity reflects their evolved function in plants in relation to stress adaptation, which itself evolved to maintain dissipative homeostasis.
医学已经利用植物疗法几千年了，但它们究竟是如何起作用的还不清楚。一种方法是采用热力学观点，即生命是通过耗散地热和/或太阳能潜力而产生的。因此，消耗能量以维持体内平衡的能力是所有生命的基本原则，可以将其视为一个 accretion 系统，其中复杂的层次结构建立在核心非生物分子之上。这些化合物中有许多是生色团，现在参与了多种途径。植物进一步进化出了大量的生色团化合物，不仅可以作为防晒霜和氧化还原调节剂，而且现在已经整合到一个通用的应激适应系统中。这可能是耗散过程的延伸。在动物中，许多这些化合物是应激反应性的，调节线粒体和钙信号。它们还可以显示抗病原体的作用。因此，由于保守的电子传递链和质子梯度，它们可以调节所有生命的生物能量。在这篇综述论文中，我们重点关注了一些描述得很好的药用化合物，如水杨酸和大麻二酚，并认为，至少在动物中，它们的活性反映了它们在植物中与应激适应相关的进化功能，而应激适应本身的进化是为了维持耗散性体内平衡。
