Herbal Cat' claw, The Herb Which Balances the Levels of Free Radicals and Antioxidants in the Body

Herbal Cat'claw may process a potential effect in balancing the ratio of free radicals and antioxidants in the body, some scientists suggested.

Free radicals are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons through chemical bonds with other atoms or molecules during a chemical reaction.

They may have positive, negative or zero charges. The unpaired electrons cause radicals to be highly chemically reactive in the human body.

Imbalance of the ratio of free radicals and antioxidants linking to the expression of oxidative stress has been associated with the onset of chronic illness, including atherosclerosis, inflammatory condition, certain cancers.
In other words, the presence of oxidative stress may be attributed to either the overexpression of free radicals generated by our body by various endogenous systems, exposure to different physiochemical conditions or pathological states or reduced levels of antioxidant enzymes in the human.

In the concerns of free radicals in the expression of oxidative damage to protein and DNA, lipid peroxidation. oxidative damage to DNA, Dr. V. Lobo, the lead researcher. wrote in the study " Free radicals, antioxidants, and functional foods: Impact on human health" "A balance between free radicals and antioxidants is necessary for proper physiological function" and " Hence application of an external source of antioxidants can assist in coping this oxidative stress. Synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole have recently been reported to be dangerous for human health".

The results clearly indicated, if our body can not produce the levels of antioxidant to counter the overexpression of free radicals reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species, intake of antioxidants from the foods, herbs and synthetic sources may be necessary.


Some researchers also suggested that antioxidants from the food and herbal sources have been found to exert the significant effect in stimulating the antioxidants produced by the host tissue.

Cat's claw found in in the tropical jungles of South and Central America, is a genus Uncaria, belonging to the family Rubiaceae.

The herb has been used in traditional medicine over two thousand years as a tonic, contraceptive, anti-inflammatory, and infectious agent, and to treat diarrhea, rheumatic disorders, acne, diabetes, cancer and diseases of the urinary tract, etc.

The chemical constituents of Cat's claw include ajmalicine, akuammigine, campesterol, catechin, carboxyl alkyl esters, chlorogenic acid, cinchonain, corynantheine, corynoxeine, daucosterol, epicatechin, Harman, hirsuteine, hirsutine, iso-pteropodine, etc.

In the aim to reaffirm the tradition use of Cat's claw as an anti-inflammatory disorder functional herbal medicine, researchers at the Albany Medical College, conducted an evaluation to examine the antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of alkaloids and flavanols isolated from the herb.

In vitro, application of alkaloids and flavanols isolated from the herb demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory activity by inhibition of TNF-alpha, the proinflammatory cytokines found in the early phase of infection and nitrite production from RAW 264.7 cells exposed to LPS (50 ng/ml) and in vivo using the indomethacin-induced gastritis model.
The IC50 value for inhibition of TNF-alpha production was significantly (P < 0.01);s higher for Uncaria tomentosa (UT) (14.1 ng/ml) vs Uncaria guianensis (UG).(9.5 ng/ml) compared to alkaloid content of Cat's claw.


Oral pretreatment for 3 d with UT protected against indomethcin-induced gastritis and prevented TNFalpha mRNA expression and apoptosis.

This demonstration reconfirms the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of the herbal medicine


Furthermore, in the study to examine the ability of pteropodine to increase the antioxidant activity in mice induced oxidative stress by administered doxorubicin, researchers found that oxidative stress created by the injection of with 10 mg/kg of doxorubicin.was inhibited by pteropodine (100-600 mg/kg).

The bone marrow cytotoxicity induced by doxorubicin was also corrected by the administration of pteropodine.

In immune and antioxidant perspective, 600 mg/kg of pteropodine increased 25.8% of the production of lymphocytes over the control value along a 96-hr assay and exhibited a strong capacity to trap the DPPH-free radical (98.26% with 250 microg/ml).

Finally, in the analysis of the antioxidant properties of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the Uncaria tomentosa bark, researchers showed that
* Both extracts process a high antioxidant capacity of the studied materials in comparison to the other extracts of fruits, vegetables, cereals, and medicinal plants.

* The alcoholic preparations exerts higher antioxidant activity and total phenolic compounds compared
Although the alcoholic preparations display a higher antioxidant potential, the highly elevated level of tannins in alcoholic extracts may cause undesirable gastric effects.


Taken altogether, Cat' claw and its extracts processed a strong antioxidant activity may be considered a functional food in the prevention of oxidative stress and combined with conventional medicine for treatment of overexpression of oxidative stress-related diseases.

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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) Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa and Uncaria guianensis) are independent of their alkaloid content by Sandoval M1, Okuhama NN, Zhang XJ, Condezo LA, Lao J, Angeles' FM, Musah RA, Bobrowski P, Miller MJ. (PubMed)
(2) Antigenotoxic, antioxidant and lymphocyte induction effects produced by pteropodine by Paniagua-Pérez R1, Madrigal-Bujaidar E, Molina-Jasso D, Reyes-Cadena S, Alvarez-González I, Sánchez-Chapul L, Pérez-Gallaga J.(PubMed)
(3) Antioxidant activity of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Uncaria tomentosa (Willd.) DC by Pilarski R1, Zieliński H, Ciesiołka D, Gulewicz K.(PubMed)
(4) Free radicals, antioxidants, and functional foods: Impact on human health by V. Lobo, A. Patil, A. Phatak, and N. Chandra. (PMC)