All advisors of Health, Education & Research are experienced researchers and have presented research findings in various venues. Betsy Costilo, MS besides her clinical phytotherapy practice, has presented research on extractions and is currently working on a manuscript on the influence of herbs on mitochondrial function.
Jason Wilson, MS has had his hands in the chemical analysis of Cannabis for many years, starting from his days at University of Mississippi. His recent research includes the extraction of cannabinoids from hemp. Stay tuned for those upcoming publications.
Kevin Spelman, PhD, MCPP, Founder of HER, has worked with medicinal plants in the clinic, the research settings (clinical trials and preclinical studies), and the field. He has published 29 peer reviewed publications and six book chapters on medicinal plants. His research history includes investigating plants for brain and ovarian cancer, clinical investigations, immunological studies, cannabinoid signaling and chemical analysis. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at National Institutes of Health, Dr. Spelman studied brain and ovarian cancer, as well as CB1 and CB2 receptor binding. He was the first researcher to elucidate cannabimimetic ligands in Zanthoxylum spp.
Dr. Spelman is a former postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Aging where he researched the molecular biology of brain cancer and ovarian cancer. He has also carried out research as a Marie Curie Research Fellow in the European Union where he identified the antimalarial activity of two separate species of medicinal plants. During his doctoral work, Dr. Spelman investigated the nuclear orphan receptors of the endocannabinoid system. He currently serves on the editorial board for Frontiers in Pharmacology. He also hosts The Spelman Report, a monthly audio science journal providing insights into the latest research on botanical medicine & cannabis.
Learn more about his current work and past research below.
Current Research Projects
Safety analysis based on CBD users’ adverse events
CBD yields in traditional herbal extraction techniques
Review of herbs that effect mitochondrial activity
Expertise in Medicinal Plant Research
Phase I human trials with medicinal plants
CYP450 assays – metabolomics applications
Toxicology probes (cytotoxicity assays)
Chemical/Metabolomic analysis (MALDI--TOF, HPLC, mass spec, HPTLC)
Molecular Biology studies (ELISAs, Cell Proliferation, Western Blots, PCR)
Published by Kevin Spelman, PhD, MCPP
Past Research Papers & Book Chapters
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December 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has elicited much laboratory and clinical research attention on vaccines, mAbs, and certain small-molecule antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 infection. By contrast, there has been comparatively little attention on plant-derived compounds, especially those that are understood to be safely ingested at common doses and are often commonly consumed in the diet. With broader scope for assays and trials against a diverse array of viral infections, we review elucidations of the pharmacokinetic mechanisms of polyphenolic compounds over the past two decades and survey their putative frequent-hitter behavior.
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National Community Pharmacists Association
Upon successful completion of this article, the pharmacist should be able to: (1) List the main Echinacea species in use today. (2) Identify four active constituents in E. purpurea extracts. (3) Contrast doses used for acute infections versus doses used for chronic conditions. (4) Identify a strategy for converting adult doses to children’s doses.
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Dec 2017
Hericium erinaceus, most commonly known as lion’s mane, is an edible fungus, with a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The mushroom is abundant in bioactive compounds including β-glucan polysaccharides; hericenones and erinacine terpenoids; isoindolinones; sterols; and myconutrients, which potentially have neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties. Because of its anti-inflammatory properties and promotion of nerve growth factor gene expression and neurite (axon or dendrite) outgrowth, H. erinaceus mycelium shows great promise for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The fungus was well tolerated in two clinical studies, with few adverse events reported.
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J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci
Mar 2014
SIRT6 is a histone deacetylase that has been proposed as a potential therapeutic target for metabolic disorders and the prevention of age-associated diseases. Thus the identification of compounds that modulate SIRT6 activity could be of great therapeutic importance. We have previously developed an H3K9 deacetylation guided assay with SIRT6 coated magnetic beads (SIRT6-MB).
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Altern Ther Health Med
April 2013
Turmeric root has been used medicinally in China and India for thousands of years. The active components are thought to be the curcuminoids, primarily curcumin, which is commonly available worldwide as a standardized extract. This article reviews the pharmacology of curcuminoids, their use and efficacy, potential adverse effects, and dosage and standardization. Preclinical studies point to mechanisms of action that are predominantly anti-inflammatory and antineoplastic, while early human clinical trials suggest beneficial effects for dyspepsia, peptic ulcer, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, uveitis, orbital pseudotumor, and pancreatic cancer. Curcumin is well-tolerated; the most common side effects are nausea and diarrhea. Theoretical interactions exist due to purported effects on metabolic enzymes and transport proteins, but clinical reports do not support any meaningful interactions. Nonetheless, caution, especially with chemotherapy agents, is advised. Late-phase clinical trials are still needed to confirm most beneficial effects.
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Appalachian Center for Ethnobotanical Studies
January 2012
Hydrastis canadensis is an herbaceous perennial growing from a short yellow rhizome. The rhizome has a knotty appearance bearing remnants of stems or stem scars (Tobe & Keating, 1985). During the first year vegetative growth consists of a pair of leaf-like cotyledons on long petioles. In the second year a few inch long ‘footstalk’ emerges bearing one palmately-lobed or maple-shaped leaf with biserrate margins near the apex.
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Analytical Chemistry
April 2012
Drug screening for antimalarials uses heme biocrystallization inhibition methods as an alternative to parasite cultures, but they involve complex processes and cannot detect artemisinin-like molecules. The described method detects heme-binding compounds by mass spectrometry, using dissociation of the drug-heme adducts to evaluate putative antiplasmodial activity. Applied to a chemical library, it showed a good hit-to-lead ratio and is an efficient early stage screening for complex mixtures like natural extracts.
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Alt Med Studies
2012
Modulation of nitric oxide (NO) may offer novel approaches in the treatment of a variety of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. A strategy in the modulation of NO expression may be through the use of herbal medicines. We surveyed medicinal plant research that utilized multicomponent extracts similar to what is used in clinical phytotherapy or in commerce, for demonstrated effects on NO activity. SciFinder Scholar, Pubmed, Web of Science, and BIOSIS were searched to identify human, animal, in vivo, ex vivo or in vitro research on botanical medicines, in whole or standardized form, that act on nitric oxide activity….
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Nat Med J
June 2012
This is the first human study to show that inhaled cannabis safely potentiates the analgesia of opioids. This effect did not appear to be due to PK influences, rather the authors speculate the effect is due to unknown pharmacodynamic (PD) activity.
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Phytother Res
April 2011
Many traditional medicines have demonstrated immune activity, however, research has largely neglected their effects on cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). This review reports on extracts from 37 medicinal plant species, similar to or replicating traditional preparations, that up- or downregulate either gene or protein activity of CAMs. The majority of the investigations were in vitro, primarily of the immunoglobulin superfamily of CAMs, specifically intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and secondarily on the integrin (CD11b or MAC-1) and selectin (E-selectin and P-selectin) families of CAMs.
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J Biol Chem
2011
Cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, are therapeutic targets in the treatment of anxiety, obesity, movement disorders, glaucoma, and pain. We have developed an on-line screening method for CB1 and CB2 ligands, where cellular membrane fragments of a chronic myelogenous leukemia cell line, KU-812, were immobilized onto the surface of an open tubular (OT) capillary to create a CB1/CB2-OT column. The binding activities of the immobilized CB1/CB2 receptors were established using frontal affinity chromatographic techniques…
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Phytother Res
July 2011
First published report of active constituents and different extractions of Spilanthes acmella against Plasmodium falciparum and P. yoelii yoelii in vivo and in vitro.
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Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia (Brazilian Journal of Pharmacognosy)
June 2011
First report of anti-plasmodium activity from Zanthoxylum chiloperone.
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Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
2010
Focusing on emerging therapies and those best supported by clinical trials and scientific evidence, Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine describes some of the most prevalent and the fastest-growing CAM therapies in use today. Prominent author Dr. Marc Micozzi provides a complete overview of CAM, creating a solid foundation and context for therapies in current practice. Coverage of systems and therapies includes mind, body, and spirit; traditional Western healing; and traditional ethnomedical systems from around the world. Discussions include homeopathy, massage and manual therapies, chiropractic, a revised chapter on osteopathy, herbal medicine, aromatherapy, naturopathic medicine, and nutrition and hydration. With its wide range of topics, this is the ideal CAM reference for both students and practitioners!
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Toxicology
2010
Many of the botanical "immunomodulators", a class of herbal medicines widely recognized in traditional medical systems such as Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic Medicine, alter immune function and may offer clinically relevant therapeutics or leads to therapeutics. Many of these traditional remedies are prepared from combinations of medicinal plants which may influence numerous molecular pathways. These effects may differ from the sum of effects from the individual plants and therefore, research demonstrating the effects of the formula is crucial for insights into the effects of traditional remedies. In this review we surveyed the primary literature for research that focused on combinations of medicinal plants and effects on cytokine activity. The results demonstrate that many extracts of herb mixtures have effects on at least one cytokine…
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University of Exeter
October 2009
The fatty acid amides, a structurally diverse endogenous congener of molecules active in cell signaling, may prove to have diverse activity due to their interface with a number of receptor systems, including, but not limited to cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) and PPARγ. Select extracts of Echinacea spp. contain the fatty acid amides known as alkylamides. These extracts were a previously popular remedy relied on by US physicians, one of the top sellers in the natural products industry and are currently a frequently physician prescribed remedy…
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Recent Advances in Plant Biotechnology (pp.213-230)
May 2009
Drugs are commonly used in mixtures, also called cocktails, to treat disease, particularly cancer and viral infections. Any two or more drugs, or for that matter, two or more bioactive plant compounds, will either interact in some way or fail to interact. If an interaction produces an effect greater than that expected for each individual drug, the interaction is termed synergistic. If the effect is less than expected, it is termed antagonistic. If the effect is equal to the expected effect (i.e., there is no interaction), the interaction is termed additive (see Greco et al., 1995; Spelman, 2007, in Cseke et al., 2006). In most therapeutic situations, the hope is that mixtures will produce a synergistic effect, but additivity can also be useful and should not be neglected.
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Int Immunopharmacol
2009
First report of PPAR-g induced immune activity by an Echinacea alkylamide.
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J Altern Complement Med
2009
First published human data demonstrating diuresis from Taraxacum officinalis.
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J Pharm Biomed Anal
2009
Tentative identification of novel alkylamides in Echinacea purpurea.
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January 2009
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Recent Advances in Plant Biotechnology
2008
The present book is divided into five sections. The first section deals with the methodology and bioresource generation, techniques related to genetic engineering, and gene transfer to the nuclear genome and chloroplast genome. The new techniques of genome profiling and gene silencing are also presented. The second section of the book deals with the classical aspect of plant biotechnology viz. tissue culture and micropropagation. Use of genetic engineering via Agrobacterium and direct transfer of DNA via particle bombardment to develop transformed plants in Artemesia, castor and orchids, and production of recombinant proteins in plant cells have been dealt with in the third section. The fourth section deals with the abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in plants. The basic biology of some of the stress responses, and designing plants for stress tolerance is discussed in this section. The fifth section deals with medicinal plants and alkaloid production.
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Planta Med
December 2006
Structure of a novel human hepatic microsomal alkylamide metabolite published for the first time.
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Natural Products from Plants, Second Edition (pp.475-501)
June 2006
Many of the natural products in plants of medicinal value offer us new sources of drugs that have been used effectively for centuries in traditional medicine. Many compounds used in medicine today have original derivatives that were of plant origin. Plants are sources of poisons, addictive drugs, and hallucinogens. These have importance in human medicine and in human social action and behavior. Many people are interested in using natural products from plants for preventive medicine, but these people must be made aware of potential harmful effects of such compounds. Plants provide us with thousands of novel compounds that give us medicines, fragrances, flavorings, dyes, fibers, foods, beverages, building materials, heavy metal chelators important in bioremediation, biocides, and plant growth regulators. This book was organized to provide relevant and practical information on each of the above topics.
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231st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society
Mar 2006
The medicinal plant Echinacea is widely used to treat upper re-spiratory infections and is reported to stimulate the human im-mune system. A major constituent class of Echinacea, the alkyl-amides, has immunomodulatory effects. Recent studies showthat alkylamides are oxidized by cytochrome P450 enzymes,but the immunomodulatory activity of these products is un-known. The objectives of this study were to characterize the pro-ducts formed by incubation of an Echinacea extract and an isolat-ed alkylamide with human liver microsomes, and to evaluate theinfluence of Echinacea alkylamides and metabolites on cytokineproduction by Jurkat human T cells. A novel class of carboxylicacid alkylamide metabolites was identified and shown to be themajor constituents present after 2-h incubation of alkylamideswith human liver microsomes. Echinacea alkylamides suppres-sed IL-2 secretion by stimulated Tcells, and this effect was signif-icantly lessened upon oxidation of the alkylamides to carboxylicacids and hydroxylated metabolites. These findings highlight theimportance of considering the influence of liver enzyme metab-olism when evaluating the immunomodulatory effects of alkyl-amides.
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January 2006
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J Herb Pharmacother
2005
Discussion of pharmacological paradigms and the occurrence of synergic activity in medicinal plant extractions.
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Australian Journal of Medical Herbalism
Jan 2001
Tinospora cordifolia, Sanskrit name Guduchi, is a viney plant from the Moonseed (Menispermaceae) family that is often found climbing Neem trees throughout tropical India, Burma, Andamans and Ceylon (Neginhal 1988). The whole plant is used medicinally, however the stem is the official medicine as listed by the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (1989). This may be due to a higher alkaloid content in the stem than the leave. Guduchi is a source of berberine as well as other alkaloids, giving it a broad spectrum antimicrobial and immunostimulating activity (Bisset 1983). This corresponds with the traditional use of the tridoshic Guduchi, which is commonly used for fevers, infectious skin diseases, gastrointestinal disturbances, tuberculosis, bronchitis, syphilis, cancers and malaria…
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J Natl Med Assoc
July 2000
Report of cobolamin deficiency, rather than folate deficiency, association with neural tube defects.
Dr. Spelman is currently the host of The Spelman Report, a monthly audio science journal providing insights into the latest research on botanical medicine & cannabis. The mission is to distill the latest evidence base to support practitioners in their clinical practice and inform better patient outcomes.