01/03/2019 / By RJ Jhonson
Inflammation can be a serious threat to your health. In a study published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the leaf extracts of mbola (Parinari curatellifolia) an African medicinal plant, has a potent anti-inflammatory activity that can help prevent inflammation from causing further damage to your body.
Inflammation is part of your body’s immune response. It is a reaction to the presence of a pathogen or to harmful stimuli. The redness and the feeling of pain and swelling that characterize inflammation are all indications that your body is fighting off harmful microbes or repairing damaged tissues following, say, an injury.
Short-term acute inflammation is, therefore, good. It becomes a cause for concern when it becomes chronic inflammation. This type of inflammation is one that persists longer than it should. It also does not have pronounced symptoms, unlike acute inflammation. When this happens, the white blood cells that protect your body from dangerous viruses and bacteria now attack your healthy cells, causing a wide array of health conditions as a result. Diseases like cancer, depression, arthritis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are all linked to chronic inflammation.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, mbola is a popular folk medicine used for the treatment of fever, microbial infections, pneumonia, and even cancer. It is also used to fight inflammation, prompting the researchers to confirm if it does, indeed, have anti-inflammatory properties.
The authors of the study prepared methanol, aqueous, acetone, and ethanol extracts from the fresh leaves of mbola. They then put these extracts through several tests to determine their capacity to inhibit inflammation, as well as the proliferation of lymphoma cells.
Mbola’s ethanol and methanol extracts were found to have significant inhibitory activity against xanthine oxidase, an enzyme that generates reactive oxygen species. These are unstable molecules that damage the cells and cause disease.
Meanwhile, mbola’s water extracts effectively inhibited the production of nitric oxide in RAW 264.7 cells. Although nitric oxide plays an important role in maintaining proper cardiovascular function, mainly because of its ability to lower blood pressure by relaxing and dilating your blood vessels, it is a pro-inflammatory chemical that contributes to the progression of inflammatory diseases.
Furthermore, findings revealed that mbola has dose-dependent cytotoxic activity on Jurkat T-cells, a lymphoma cell line. Further analysis showed that the cancer cells exposed to mbola extracts ended up with damaged DNA, explaining the plant’s ability to induce apoptosis or cellular death.
The researchers validated mbola’s applications in traditional medicine, particularly in pain management and the treatment of inflammatory and tumor-related conditions, such as cancer. (Related: Inflammation is a major reason why you can’t lose weight.)
Prevention is always better than cure. Incorporating the following foods in your diet can help prevent or lower the occurrence of harmful inflammation:
Learn how to treat inflammation naturally at Remedies.news.
Sources include:
Tagged Under: African medicine, alternative medicine, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiproliferative, herbal medicine, inflammation, lymphoma, mbola, natural cures, natural medicine, nitric oxide, Parinari curatellifolia