Sunday 9 September 2018

Butterbur, The Functional Herb Which Protects Neurons Integrity, Scientist Find

Kyle J. Norton

Scientists have found a herbal plant which processes a potential and therapeutic effect in the protection against damage and death of neurons.

Neuroprotective effects are the protection against anything which causes harm to the brain and spinal cord

In other words, herbal butterbur promotes neuronal integrity against the reduction in the rate of neuronal loss that causes neurodegenerative disease.

Dr. Vajda FJ, the scientist at the St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne in the expression of neuro diseases said, "neuroprotection is an effect that may result in salvage, recovery or regeneration of the nervous system, its cells, structure, and function. It is thought that there are many neurochemical modulators of nervous system damage" and " Acute and chronic nervous system damage in response to an insult may lead to acute or delayed neuronal death, apoptotic cell death, neuronal degeneration, injury and loss, and gliosis"(4).

The Mcgovern Istitute in the article related to brain disorder wrote, "Many brain disorders are chronic and incurable conditions whose disabling effects may continue for years or even decades. Thus, the overall disease burden from these disorders is much greater than would be suggested by mortality figures alone. The extent of this burden is underlined by data from the World Health Organization".

Most common brain disease neurodegenerative disease including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), affecting millions of people worldwide.

And, dementia is an umbrella term that describes a variety of diseases and conditions caused by nerve cells in the brain die or no longer function normally. Symptoms may affect memory, behavior and ability to think clearly.

According to statistic, approximately over 5.7 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's. as of 2018, 1 in 8 people age 65 and older (10 percent) has Alzheimer's disease in the US. Sadly, The numbers of Alzheimer's disease are growing and growing fast.

Butterbur, found in wet, marshy, damp land, including wetland, riverside, forest, etc., is a creeping underground plant, genus Petasites of 15 -20 species, belongings to the family Asteraceae, native to Northern Hemisphere.

The herbal medicine has been used in herbal medicine as an pain reliever in the digestive system, including stomach, bile ducts,...... and duodenum.

The Ingredients
The chemical constituents of Butterbur include Petioles, petasitene and pethybrene, quercetin 3-O-beta-D-glucoside, quercetin 3-O-beta-D-6''-O-acetylglucoside, and rutin, caffeic acid, alkaloids, S-petasin and iso-S-petasin, etc.

In the study to investigate neuroprotective effects in a rat transient focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion model, and in an in vitro cerebral ischemia model, oxygen-glucose deprivation of cultured nerve cells, researchers found that application of total bakkenolides, a major bioactive constituent isolated immediately after reperfusion at doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg markedly reduced brain infarct volume and neurological deficits.

Additional analysis also suggested, the administrated doses also significantly attenuated cell death and apoptosis in primarily cultured neurons subject to 1-h hypoxia followed by 24-h reoxygenation.

The efficacy of herbal butterbur in protected neurons was attributed by total bakkenolides in inhibited an enzyme activators with function in propagated the cellular response to inflammation through NF-κB, a protein complex regulated transcription of DNA, cytokine production and cell survival.

In other words, application of total bakkenolides reduced brain infarct volume and over expression of pro inflammation cytokines in response to focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion that have a strong impact in decreased neuro cell damage and death at the site of reperfusion injure.

Dr. Jiang Q, the lead author after taking into account of other co and confounder said, "(The) results provide a strong pharmacological basis for further understanding the potential therapeutic role of total bakkenolides in cerebral ischemic disease.

Some researchers in the study of Bakkenolides in primary cultured neurons exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation and oxidative insults, suggested, Bakkenolides exerted neuro protective effects may be results from properties of its antioxidant properties.

Moreover, petaslignolide A (PA), a furfuran lignan isolated from butanol fraction of Petasites japonicus (Sieb. et Zucc.) (Compositae) leaves in study of the oxidative damage in the brain of mice, facilitated a significant effect at dose of 40 mg/kg in alleviated the behavioral signs of kainic acid neurotoxicity and reduced the mortality (50%) by kainic acid to 12.5%.

Administration of PA also restore the levels of antioxidants in the mice that were reduced by injection of kainic acid in compared to control.

Further analsysis found that  PA (40 mg/kg) effectiveness is comparable to those of butanol fraction (200 mg/kg) of P. japonicus extract in reducing kainic acid neurotoxicity.

These results indicated that  butanol fraction (200 mg/kg) of P. japonicus extract exhibited strong neuro protective, probably is due to the presence of petaslignolide A (PA).

The findings suggested herbal butterbur may be considered as a functional herb for neuro protection, however, the volume of the herb used should only be prescribed herbal doctor.

However, further data collection on large example size and multi centers studies performed with human consumption of the whole food  during the course of the disease will be necessary to complete the picture of butterbur neuro protective possibilities.


Biography
Kyle J. Norton(Scholar, Master of Nutrition), all right reserved.

Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published on line, including world wide health, ezine articles, article base, healthblogs, selfgrowth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bio science, ISSN 0975-6299.References
(1) Total Bakkenolides Protects Neurons against Cerebral Ischemic Injury through Inhibition of Nuclear Factor-Κb Activation by Jiang Q, Xia Yy EY, Jm HE, Guo Ml EY, Rp LI.(PubMed)
(2) Bakkenolides from Petasites tricholobus and their neuroprotective effects related to antioxidant activities by Wang YL, Li RP, Guo ML, Zhang G, Zhang N, Ma YL.(PubMed)
(3) Protection by petaslignolide A, a major neuroprotective compound in the butanol extract of Petasites japonicus leaves, against oxidative damage in the brains of mice challenged with kainic acid by Cui HS, Kim MR, Sok DE.(PubMed)
(4) Neuroprotection and neurodegenerative disease by Vajda FJ(PubMed)

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