Herbal Butterbur, The Best in the Promotion of Antioxidant Activity

Herbal Butterbur may be the potential target to extract a single ingredient for the treatment of oxidative stress, some scientists suggested.

Oxidative stress is either caused by overexpression free radicals compared to levels of antioxidant or suppression of the levels of antioxidant enzymes in the host body, compared to the expression of free radicals.

The imbalanced ratio of free radical and antioxidant enzymes produced by the host that counter the overexpression of free radicals has been found to facilitate the early onset of numbers of chronic ailments, such as cancers.

Free radicals are naturally produced from daily normal essential metabolic processes in the human body. However, some external sources such as exposure to X-rays, ozone, cigarette smoking, air pollutants, and industrial chemicals can also increase the expression of free radicals in the body.

Free radicals are unstable molecules with the unpaired electron in the outer ring and ready to donate or steal an electron from another molecule, leading to the chain reaction until they are stopped by the presence of the antioxidants or their outer ring are paired.

Overexpression of free radical chain reactive in the human body has been known to induce oxidative stress, causing damage to the cells, proteins, and alternation of cell DNA. In this case, the application of an external source of antioxidants such as synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole may be helpful to restore the balance of these 2 types of molecule.

Hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion radical, hydrogen peroxide, oxygen singlet, hypochlorite, nitric oxide radical, and peroxynitrite radical are hight reactive and important free radical associated with many chronic diseases.

Dr. V. Lobo, in the concern of the overexpression of free radicals in the induction of a number of human chronic illness conducted a study to examine the impacts of free radicals, antioxidants and functional foods in human health said in summary, "Free radicals damage contributes to the etiology of many chronic health problems such as cardiovascular and inflammatory disease, cataract, and cancer. Antioxidants prevent free radical induced tissue damage by preventing the formation of radicals, scavenging them, or by promoting their decomposition".

(More importantly)" Synthetic antioxidants are recently reported to be dangerous to human health. Thus the search for effective, nontoxic natural compounds with antioxidative activity has been intensified in recent years. In addition to endogenous antioxidant defense systems, consumption of dietary and plant-derived antioxidants appears to be a suitable alternative. Dietary and other components of plants form a major source of antioxidants".

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

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

The chemical constituents of Butterbur include Petioles, petasitene, and ethylene, 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 finding the natural ingredient from the botanical plants which process a significant antioxidant activity without inducing any side effects, researchers at the Second Military Medical University looked into a bioactive compound isolated from the herbal Butterbur.

Four novel bakkenolides - bakkenolide-Ia ( 1), bakkenolide-IIa ( 2), bakkenolide-IIIa ( 3) and bakkenolide-IVa ( 4) - were isolated from the extract of the rhizome of Petasites tricholobus.


All 4 compounds demonstrated the neuroprotective activity by reversing the neurons damage exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation and oxidative insults.


The results of this efficacy were associated with the antioxidant properties of the 4 compound in inhibiting the oxidative stress caused by the oxygen-glucose deprivation.


The finding indicated that herbal Butterbur not only processed a significant activity in protecting the brain cells against oxidative stress due to overexpression of free radical but also promoted the production of antioxidant enzymes in the host tissue.

In hyphenated HPLC techniques used to identify the structures and antioxidant activities without prior purification of compounds, researchers found that herbal Butterbur process a number of bioactive compounds, including 5-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA), fukinolic acid (FA), 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (3,5-DCQA) exert a strong antioxidant free radical scavenging activity.


The greatest radical scavenging capacity was found in the leaf (23.09% of total antioxidant capacity) and root (26.47%) extracts.

The relative radical scavenging portion of quercetin-3-O-(6″-acetyl)-β-glucopyranoside (QAG) was only 3.41% in the leaves and KAG did not show any radical scavenging activity.


These results firmly suggested that herbal Butterbur processes a significant antioxidant property. However, single ingredient isolated from the herb may express different levels of antioxidant in a dose-depending manner.

Therefore, herbal Butterbur containing a high amount of antioxidant and bioactive compounds free radical scavengers may be considered a functional food for the promotion of antioxidant activity.


Natural Medicine for Fatty Liver And Obesity Reversal - The Revolutionary Findings To Achieve Optimal Health And Lose Weight

How To Get Rid Of Eye Floaters
Contrary To Professionals Prediction, Floaters Can Be Cured Naturally

Ovarian Cysts And PCOS Elimination
Holistic System In Existence That Will Show You How To
Permanently Eliminate All Types of Ovarian Cysts Within 2 Months

Back to Kyle J. Norton Homepage http://kylejnorton.blogspot.ca


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) 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)
(2) Free radicals, antioxidants and functional foods: Impact on human health by V. Lobo, A. Patil, A. Phatak, and N. Chandra. (PMC)