musings on medicines from the Earth
Abel Pharmboy is the nom de plume of an academic researcher and educator who holds a PhD in Pharmacology. He writes on natural product drugs and dietary supplements, academic career development, medical journalism and, occasionally, making and listening to music and wine appreciation for the monetarily-challenged.
You can learn quickly the distinction between the fields of Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Pharmacy, the Pharmaceutical Sciences by clicking on the hyperlinks. You can learn more about the author here.
"Why Terra Sigillata?" will tell you about the origin of the blog name.
Please feel free to contact me off-blog by e-mail to abelpharmboy (at) gmail (dot) com.
Please read the DISCLAIMER for details on the blog's intended audience, advertising and comment policy, and how not to use the information presented herein.
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March 31, 2007
Category: Blogging community
Death threats against a tech blogger cause Tim O'Reilly and friends to suggest that we are responsible for not only our content, but the content of our comment threads as well.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 4:41 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 30, 2007
Category: The Friday Fermentable
The meaning of Merlot to Utahans, and who is Fran Liebowitz anyway???
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:35 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Drug safety
You may have read that pergolide (Permax), a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease, has been withdrawn voluntarily from the US market due to its causal association with heart valve abnormalities. I hope to have time later to discuss why...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:21 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 27, 2007
Category: Chemistry
A few years ago, GlaxoSmithKline marketed Remifemin brand of black cohosh extract from their consumer products division as a hormone-free alternative in managing menopausal symptoms. But after reports surfaced that black cohosh might be associated with cases of liver damage,...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:02 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 26, 2007
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
Results from major US cardiology meeting on a semi-synthetic derivative of a compound from Australian magnolia bark.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 3:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 25, 2007
Category: Pediatric health
Docs have a million of these kinds of stories, but pediatrician Dr Clark Bartram at Unintelligent Design put up a particularly moving reflection on a recent case....
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 4:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 24, 2007
Category: Cancer
For your Saturday morning reading pleasure, here are two articles following up on my dichloroacetate (DCA) and bogus internet pharmacy death posts this week. Each was recommended by my clandestine operative from the Great White North, PharmCanuck: Canadian cancer society...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 3:03 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 23, 2007
Category: The Friday Fermentable
Guest-blogger Erleichda returns with a blind tasting of Pinot Noir, a column he wrote in November that I overlooked in my e-mail queue. Forty lashes with a grapevine!
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 4:01 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 22, 2007
Category: Humor
Former Parke-Davis employee and late night character dies at 85.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 3:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Drug safety
OmniBrain's Sandra Kiuwe points out the drawbacks of responding to the "buy tramadol, buy Viagra, buy Vicodin" internet gambit.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:02 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 20, 2007
Category: Pharmaceuticals
So say the American elder statesmen of natural products in the 2007 update of their periodic review of the subject to be published in the 23 March issue of the Journal of Natural Products. Yet only two major US pharmaceutical companies maintain dedicated natural product drug discovery efforts.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 10:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 19, 2007
Category: Cancer
My blog buddy Orac at Respectful Insolence has a superb post today following up on his continuous coverage of dichloroacetate and two posts I had recently on local coverage in the Edmonton Journal of this unapproved, experimental compound. As an...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 17, 2007
Category: Cancer
From the same reporter at the Edmonton Journal who brought us yesterday's DCA article comes news of a Canadian pharmacist who has been providing patients with physician-prescribed dichloroacetate.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:01 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 16, 2007
Category: Cancer
A Canadian reporter digs into the dichloroacetate misrepresentation.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 3:16 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pharmacoeconomics
This week has seen the launch of a new health blog by the Wall Street Journal. While I don't hold the highly conservative views of the WSJ editorial pages, I have found the paper one of the best international sources...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:13 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 14, 2007
Category: Biology
The new issue of Newsweek (19 Mar 2007) carried a surprise for me: former Wall Street Journal health reporter, Sharon Begley, has moved back to the magazine. In fact, Begley wrote this week's excellent discussion and cover story on the...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 7:23 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 13, 2007
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
How might chasteberrry treat infertility if it also makes one chaste???
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:02 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 12, 2007
Category: Stuff I don't know about
Read the post on DST at Cognitive Daily.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 10, 2007
Category: The Old North State
Since many homers read Terra Sig instead of my local interest blog, here's news on today's inaugural activities at our new community space, Bull City Headquarters (BCHQ)....
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 3:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 9, 2007
Category: Blogging community
On this day in 1957, A magnitude 9.1 earthquake shook the Andreanof Islands in Alaska, the second strongest quake in U.S. history (although Alaska would not become the 49th state until more than a year later), generating a tsunami that...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:01 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 8, 2007
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
Systematic testing of the potential use of this poorly-absorbed natural product.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 10:01 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 7, 2007
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
While spending so much time last week on the issue of conscientious objection by pharmacists, I overlooked the 26 February publication in Archives of Internal Medicine of a very well-designed clinical trial to test the hypothesis that garlic/garlic supplements lower...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 6, 2007
Category: Non-herbal supplements
If the data are true, what does this imply?
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:44 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 5, 2007
Category: The Working Scientist
I've never used the blog for this purpose, but why not? The benchtop pH meter I purchased when starting the Pharmboy laboratory a number of years ago is beginning to have electronics problems (it's an old Fisher AccuMet of some...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 2:42 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 2, 2007
Category: Pharmacy
For those who have been asking over the last couple of days, here are the oath of a pharmacist as recited at US colleges of pharmacy and a code of ethics adopted in 1994 by the then-American Pharmaceutical Association (now...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:47 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 1, 2007
Category: Bioethics
Yesterday's discussion of a pharmacist's right to refuse filling prescriptions based on moral or legal grounds generated some great discussion. I appreciate the thoughtful discussion of the commenters as well as two posts on the topic by Prof Janet Stemwedel....
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 12:42 PM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
