Asparagus, The Veggie and Plant That Boosts and Restores Cellular and Humoral Immunity, Scientists Say

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Asparagus may have profound and potential effect in reducing the risk of infection caused by microorganisms and preventing the overactive immune system to launch an attack of the body tissue, mistakenly, some scientists suggested.

The immune system is the set of cells and their activity against antigens or infectious agents that comprise the body's defense system against diseases.

 The immune system does a great job of keeping people healthy and preventing infections. Beside foods and nutritional supplements, herbs also play an important role in helping the immune system defend against viruses and bacteria attacks.

Immunomodulatory activity is an action that improves the under active immune function that is susceptible to the invasion of the foreign microorganism and inhibits the overactive immune system that causes autoimmune diseases.

In other words, the immunomodulatory activity involved antimicrobial agents is to modulate the genes involved in immune reactions, or of the neurohormonal system which regulates immune functions and any toxic or immunotoxic effects such as allergic reactions or destruction of immune effectors, that may cause harm to the body or interfere with the body normal function.

Dr. Marie-Thérèse Labro in the study "Immunomodulatory Effects of Antimicrobial Agents. Part I"
with the assessment of the battle against infections, microorganisms are still a threat to mankind. said, "we have now entered the third era of anti-infective strategy, which intends to favor the interplay between active molecules and the immune system. The first part of this review focuses on the potential immunomodulating properties of anti-infective agents, beginning with antibacterial and antiviral agents".

Truly, regardless of hundreds of antibacterial medicine were produced by mankind, the major concerns remain about the emergence of resistant and multidrug-resistant pathogens, 

The doctor continued, "(Particularly), the antiviral drug armamentarium is comprised of only a few dozens of compounds which are highly pathogen-specific, and resistance is also a concern".

Therefore, improving the immune function as of today still is the best method in reducing the risk of infection and autoimmune diseases'

Asparagus is a flowering plant,  belonging to species the genus Asparagus, native to the western coasts of northern Spain, north to Ireland, Great Britain, and northwest Germany, northern Africa, and western Asia.

The plant and food have been used from early times as a vegetable and medicine, because of its delicate flavor and diuretic properties.

In the investigate whether Asparagus racemosus Linn. (Fam. Liliaceae) an ethnopharmacologically acclaimed Ayurvedic medicinal plant processes the immunomodulatory effect against pathogens, researchers at the Centre for Phytochemistry and Pharmacology, by examining the action of an aqueous extract from the plant.

Observation of the immunoreactivity after injecting with the extract into the human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolated from whole blood on a ficoll-hypaque density gradient, showed a dose-dependent in stimulating the immune NK cell activity with a peak increase of 16.9±4.4% at 5.6 μg/ml.

Further differentiation suggested that ARP can achieve a higher stimulatory immune activity of 51.8±1.2% at 25 μg/ml.

These results suggested that A. racemosus processed an immune modulatory effect in potentiating the NK cell activity of the immune system. 

Some researchers in the concerns of the current drugs efficacies that suppress the immune function during the course of infection, conducted a study with an aim to find a natural compound with the similar efficacy but no side effects.

The combination of Asparagus racemosus, an immunomodulatory drug, in combination with cisplatin against Leishmania donovani was used in the testing against parasite infected BALB/c mice.

According to the final report, infection of A. racemosus at a dose of 650 mg/kg b.wt./day for 15 days, in combination with cisplatin at the dose of 5 mg/kg b.wt./day for 5 days, intraperitoneally exerted a significant effect in enhancing the clearance of parasites as determined by Giemsa-stained liver impression smears.

Moreover, Besides having better killing activity, the combination group achieved increased production of disease resolving Th-1 response (IFN-gamma, IL-2) that has a function in killing intracellular parasites bacteria and viruses, heightened DTH (delayed type hypersensitivity) response and augmented levels of antibody IgG2a.

The findings may suggest that A. racemosus in combination with cisplatin in L. donovani infected BALB/c mice boosted and restored both cellular and humoral immunity.

Importantly, after taking into account co and confounders, Dr. Sachdeva H, the lead author added, "Moreover, A. racemosus in combination with cisplatin not only provided enhanced protective immune response but also resulted in remarkable improved kidney and liver function tests as manifested by normal levels of SGOT, SGPT, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine and urea in blood plasma with normal histological observations as compared to only cisplatin treated L. donovani infected BALB/c mice".

Taken all together, Asparagus used alone or in combination with cisplatin in L. donovani may be considered a primary  Immunomodulatory therapy for treatment for people with immune diseases.

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 asparagus immunomodulatory possibilities.


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Author 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 online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, 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 Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.
References
(1) Characterization and in vitro immunomodulatory screening of fructo-oligosaccharides of Asparagus racemosus Willd. by Thakur M, Connellan P, Deseo MA, Morris C, Praznik W, Loeppert R, Dixit VK.(PubMed)
(2) Asparagus racemosus ameliorates cisplatin induced toxicities and augments its antileishmanial activity by immunomodulation in vivo. by Sachdeva H, Sehgal R, Kaur S.(PubMed)