Al Leung (second from left) with members of his feverfew research team in their laboratory at the Phyto-Technology manufacturing facility in Woodbine, Iowa. Pictured are (left to right): Heather Conway, lab quality control supervisor; Leung, CEO and president, Phyto-Technology Inc.; Shannon Ehlers, R&D chemist; Pat Mettler, herbalist/lab technician; Caiping Su, research scientist; and Darin Smith, vice president and general manager. Not pictured is Dennis V.C. Awang, Leung's co-principal investigator.

Albert Y. Leung, MSPcog'65, PhDPcog'67:

Phyto-Technologies Enters Second Phase of NCCAM Feverfew Study Grant

Albert Y. Leung, MSPcog'65, PhDPcog'67, CEO and president of Phyto-Technologies, an herbal products company located in Woodbine, Iowa, reports that his firm has entered the second and final year of the second phase of a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine grant to study the plant, feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), for its potential to prevent migraine headaches. Leung is a principal investigator of the three-year, $1.4 million study. Dennis V.C. Awang, of MediPlant, Inc., an expert in the chemistry of feverfew, is the co-principal investigator.

The study focuses on identification, characterization, standardization, and manufacture of reproducible feverfew preparations to be used in clinical trials. Phase I research was devoted to developing unique multifaceted physicochemical techniques for the identification and characterization of feverfew selections, potential adulterants, and feverfew materials used in previous clinical trials. Phase II research utilizes these techniques, complemented by biological and genetic assays, to identify, characterize, and standardize feverfew preparations with the most anti-migraine potential for clinical trials.

The study has major health implications for migraine sufferers, worldwide.

In the U.S. alone, migraine headaches affect one in 10 people resulting in more than 157,000,000 lost workdays annually. Migraine attacks may last for several hours or days if not treated, and 60 percent of sufferers have one or more severe attacks each month.

Leung, 66, who has devoted much of his life to bringing herbal products into the health care mainstream, observes that many herbal products do not work because "there are presently no truly meaningful and/or relevant standards for herbs and their extracts, resulting in the current general lack of uniform quality of herbal products. Our research will, for the first time in the history of herbal medicine, provide a meaningful and workable model to control the quality of not only feverfew products, but also herbal products in general."

Leung is well-known in the herbal industry as an outspoken advocate for herbal product quality and safety. His firm, Phyto-Technologies, specializes in herb research and in custom formulation/manufacture of Chinese herbal products for private-label distribution.

"I am probably one of the very few pharmacy graduates of my age who take no 'modern' drugs — OTC or Rx," Leung notes. "I am not sure how much is heredity and how much is due to my herbal tonics, but I am happy about whatever it is that contributes to my continuing good health."

E-mail: ayl@earthpower.com.