Merging Modern and Ancient Medicines
An Interview with Albert Y. Leung, a pharmacologist who uses modern medical science to study the mechanisms—or active components—of herbs.
Published September 30, 2004
By Dan Van Atta
Academy Contributor

To Albert Y. Leung, the benefits of Western medicine and those of medicinal herbs and other “natural” remedies are by no means mutually exclusive. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Leung grew up experiencing the power of traditional approaches to medicine used for centuries in China.
“My great grandfather on my mother’s side was a local doctor in his little village,” recalls Leung, a member of The New York Academy of Sciences since 1976. “While, I never knew him, my grandmother knew a lot about herbs. I grew up taking herbs.”
“I grew up taking herbs, but no one really understood why they worked.”
For three decades, Leung has used the tools and knowledge of modern medical science to study the mechanisms—or active components—of herbs. He is helping to understand what makes them effective in reducing certain aches and pains, as well as alleviating other symptoms of illness.
“I knew that for certain problems herbs were effective,” Leung said, “but then no one really understood why they worked. Now we know that many herbs contain active ingredients that are antioxidant or anti-inflammatory agents.”
Leung obtained a BS degree in pharmacy at the National Taiwan University before coming to the United States in 1962. He earned his MS and PhD in pharmacognosy at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor.
Part Scientist, Part Entrepreneur
Moving to Glen Rock, New Jersey, in the late 1970s, Leung created AYSL Corp., an information company. AYSL “probably holds the most extensive collection of Chinese journals in a single location outside of China” covering traditional Chinese medicine. He also edited the Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics. Hailed as the most authoritative reference for natural ingredients in commercial use, it is now entering its third edition.
In the past 30 years dietary supplements and “health foods” based on “natural” ingredients have become a major industry. Leung said he is concerned about the safety and efficacy of many products sold as herbal extracts.
“The major problem is that everyone claims their product is the best,” he said, “but there is no real science behind it, no real controls. To say that a product is standardized doesn’t mean much when, for many of these products, the active ingredient is not known.”
In 1996, Leung founded a second company, Phyto-Technologies, Inc., to specialize in herb research. Phyto-Technologies manufactures and custom formulates Chinese herbal products for private-label distribution. With facilities in Glen Rock, New Jersey, and Woodbine, Iowa, the company now has 20 employees. Leung serves as president and chief executive officer.
“My approach is to provide the quality control needed to make the extracts the way they are supposed to be made,” Leung explained. “Certain herbs have to be extracted by traditional methods, such as boiling in water or soaking in alcohol. In the past four or five years we’ve developed some more technical aspects, but our approach is to combine appropriate science with the traditional methods necessary to retain the total benefits of traditional Chinese herbs.”
A Major Headache
Leung is currently engaged in the third year of a research study of the herb feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium Schultz Bip.) for use in migraine prevention. His company has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to conduct the study, for which he is the principal investigator.
This second year of the phase II grant, “Reproducible Feverfew Preparations for Migraine Trials,” is fully funded, with $690,337. Dennis V. C. Awang, of MediPlant, Inc., an expert in the chemistry of feverfew, is the co-principal investigator. Funding for both phases of the three-year project comes to about $1.4 million.
Leung’s main objective is to characterize and to standardize feverfew preparations that have the greatest potential for use in human clinical trials for relief of migraine. During the past 20 years four clinical trials have yielded positive results in migraine prevention. Three of the trials used dried feverfew leaf powder, and one used a CO2 supercritical fluid extract (SFE). However, another trial—using a 90% ethanolic extract (by prolonged extraction), containing high levels of parthenolide (0.35%)—produced negative results.
“These results indicated that parthenolide is not the active principle of feverfew in migraine prevention, as previously assumed,” Leung said. The researchers then used chromatographic and spectrophotometric profiling and bioassay and gene expression assay techniques to define and isolate the potentially active components present in the dried leaf and the SFE, but absent in the prolonged extract.
Further studies are now in progress to characterize potential active components, Leung said. “Pilot batches of materials standardized to contents and physicochemical profiles of these components will be prepared and further subjected to activity verification by bioassay and gene expression assay,” he added.
The Researcher as Communicator
These materials “will then be subjected to clinical trials.” If all goes well, Leung said, the work would result in a safe, effective over-the-counter drug for migraine.
In the meantime, Leung continues to see his role as one of communicator as well as researcher. In 1995 he published another book, Better Health with (Mostly) Chinese Herbs & Foods. He also serves as an advisor to the Modernizing Chinese Medicine International Association, headquartered in Hong Kong. In addition to conducting research and writing books about herbal medicine, Leung produces a newsletter on the subject as well.
“There are a lot of aspects of modern medicine that are superior,” commented Leung, “but there are many common ailments that modern medicine still does not understand and is unable to treat. And there are herbs that work to reduce aches and pains—even though we may not know the active ingredients that make them work. I think the two forms of medicine should be used side by side.”
Also read:A New Look at an Ancient Pain Remedy