The anxiolytic effects of a Valerian extract is based on Valerenic acid

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Axel Brattström¹  Beat Meier²  Axel Becker³  Falko Felgentreff³  Helmut Schröder³ 

[1] Alexander Puschkin Str. 50, 39108, Magdeburg, Germany;Inst. Biotechnology, Zürich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland;Inst. Pharmacology and Toxicology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany;

关键词: Valerian extract;    Valerenic acid;    Elevated plus maze;    Anxiety;    Binding;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-14-267

 received in 2014-05-19, accepted in 2014-07-22,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundValerian is commonly used for the treatment of insomnia and anxiety. Valerian extracts allosterically modulate GABA-A receptors and induced an anxiolytic activity. This activity is closely related to valerenic acid. In the present experiments it was investigated whether acetoxy valerenic acid may interfere with the anxiolytic action of valerenic acid.MethodsSituational anxiety was measured using male CD-1 mice in the elevated plus maze test after oral administration of the test substances. In addition the body core temperature was measured. For the 3H-GABA binding assay dissected tissue from frontal cortex of male RjHan:WI rats were used. Statistical evaluation was performed by means of the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallies H-test, followed by the two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test.ResultsAdding of acetoxy valerenic acid abolished the anxiolytic action of valerenic acid. There was no effect on body core temperature. Moreover, the valerian extract did not show any affinity to benzodiazepine binding sites.ConclusionThe determining compound for the observed anxiolytic effect of the valerian extract is its content of valerenic acid.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Becker et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.