I might not have automatically ven...

I might not have automatically venture to sayed that a small, perennial herb, united which modestly grows in the Himalayas at an altitude of 3000 to 5000 meter would be of the like kind a powerful player in the international medicinal botanical view But I would have been unfit if I hadn't realized it. In fact, extracts from Picrorhiza kurroa have been proven to be super-potent liver protectors and immune-modulators.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

History, traditional use, and components

The bitter primitive words and rhizome of Picrorhiza kurroa, "an important herb in the Indian [medical] theory of Ayurveda," have been used traditionally for asthma, bronchitis, malaria, chronic bloody flux viral hepatitis, upset stomach, scorpion sting, as a bitter tonic (stimulating the appetite and improving digestion), and as a liver protectant (hepato-protectant).

What's in it? Until RP Rastogi, and colleagues, published their powerful article in succession the chemistry of the stems and rhizome of the plant Picrorhiza kurroa, in 1949 the most numerous up-to-date biochemical analysis was an 1890 treatise by the agency of Dymock, Warden and Hooper.

Since 1949 Rastogi and others have isolated a number of mixs from the roots, including a glucoside (simple sugar plus alcohol), a bitter principle called kutkin, a non-bitter intermingle called kurrin, and other composings including vanillic acid, kutkiol, and kutki-sterol. It was later discovered that kutkin is a mixed crystal of brace glucosides -- glucoside-A and kutkoside.

Liver-protectant extraordinaire

Death Cap mushroom poisoning. In an animal-model consideration published in 1990, Floersheim, and colleagues, reported increased survival (protective effect) when doses of a commercial extract of Picrorhiza kurroa were administered before the deadly mushroom was ingested (the lethal results of death cap mushroom poisoning are primarily owed to massive injury to the liver). Similar follows were obtained by Y. Dwivedi, and colleagues, in 1992 When the extract was administered after ingestion, an "increased survival rate" was achieved.

Infection with parasitic organisms. In 1990 R Chander, and colleagues, place the plant to have "significant protective and antioxidant results in the liver" in experimental infection with Plasmodium berghei. In 1992 the same author reported liver- and brain-protective efficiencys in a similar experimental gauge Specifically, beneficial "changes in glutathione metabolism (a powerful detox order in the body)" in the liver and brain were seen and reduc lipid peroxidation (due to released radicals) was also documented.

Chemical poisoning. Extracts from Picrorhiza kurroa have been reported to foster the liver (and body) in cases of carbon tetrachloride poisoning as far back as 1969 (VN Pandey, et al.) and as lately as 1993 (B. Saraswat, et al.). This nasty little customer is single of innumerable "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) many of which are added to commercial indoor pesticides (such as xylene and kerosene)

Paracetamol (acetaminophen in the US) overdose. In a number of studies, including single conducted in 1991 by R.A. Ansari, and colleagues, and another carried public by V. Singh, and associates, in 1992 significant liver protection was demonstrated when the extract was given before administration of the paracetamol -- a public ingredient in many OTC (over-the-counter) analgesics, which, if overdosed, can injure the liver.

Why does it do what it does? Frankly, nobody knows to what end for sure, although there are theories. individual of the above-cited researchers, R Chander, put in mind ofs that the extract's primary elements are excellent free-radical scavengers, and that this activity contributes to liver protection through reducing lipid peroxidation (a source of independent radicals) and free-radical damage. The extract also stimulates nucleic-acid and protein production in the liver; this is another possibility.

Immune-regulator par excellence

Asthma. In clinical trials leadershiped by J.G. Langer, and colleagues, and reported in the Indian Journal of Pharmacology, in 25 patients with asthma addition ed with 400 mg/day of the extract, moderate-to-marked relief was reported in all cases. Relief (in near cases without recurrence) was also achieved at those who suffered from rheumatic pain proper to ankylosing spondylitis, cervical spondylitis, and osteoarthritis.

It could be said that the barely common factor between etiology of asthma and inflammatory joint diseases befitting to unknown etiology is the immunological factor. This belief l Langer, and other clinical scientists, to prove the extract in conditions in which the etiology (origin) of the disease was uniteed with autoimmune processes (when the corpse produces antibodies against its be in possession of tissues).

Skin conditions, peptic sore and neuralgia. According to Langer's assign places to in eight cases of psoriasis, leukoderma (acquired vitiligo), peptic boil and intractable pain (due to neuralgia and secondary symptoms of malignant tumors), the patients experienced relief from their symptoms and outward manifestations with the extract.