Herba Epimedii: Anti-Oxidative Properties and Its Medical Implications

Molecules

Stephen Cho Wing Sze¹  Yao Tong¹  Tzi Bun Ng¹  Chris Lok Yin Cheng¹ 

[1] ¹School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China ²School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China

关键词: Herba Epimedii;    icarrin;    anti-oxidant;    flavonoids;    polysaccharides;    vitamin C;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules15117861

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Herba Epimedii is a Chinese herbal medicine with proven efficacy in treating cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis, and in improving sexual and neurological functions. This efficacy is found to be related to the potent anti-oxidative ability of Herba Epimedii and its flavonoid components, with icarrin as the main effective constituent, along with polysaccharides and vitamin C. These ingredients have been proven to be effective against oxidative-stress related pathologies (cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and inflammation) in animal rodent models and in vitro studies. Their anti-oxidative properties are found to be related to an inductive effect on endogenous free-radical scavenging enzymes such as catalase and glutathione peroxidase and the inherent electron-donating ability of flavonoids.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.