Synergy: an old wisdom, a new paradigm for pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Synergy is one of the governing principles of the natural world, and is one of the reasons for the increasing complexity of the evolutionary process. Broadly speaking, it relates to the cooperative effects produced by the interaction between various forces, elements, parts or individuals in a given context. Since the last century, some clinical studies have described the increased efficiency of a combination of drugs. To study the effects of the drug interactions, the most commonly cited model is that of Loewe, and the classical graphical representation is the iso-effect curve (isobologram). Plants contain an enormous diversity of specialized micromolecules, therefore there is a high likelihood of interactions between them. Through recent synergy studies, various synergistic interactions have been demonstrated among extracts of different plants, and between components of the same extract.