Yerba santa

"Holy herb" promises a cure for Alzheimer's disease

Serg Kite, MixedNews.

Traditional medicine

The name that the local Indian tribes of California gave to the plant Eriodictyon californicum – "Yerba santa" – translates as "holy grass". This name is a testament to the people's respect for this plant, which they used to treat almost everything – from headaches to muscle pain.

To date, researchers have made an encouraging discovery of new properties of this plant: they believe that it can be used to treat another disease – Alzheimer's disease.

Protecting the brain

In a study published in the journal Redox Biology (Fischer et al., Old age-associated phenotypic screening for Alzheimer's disease drug candidates identifies sterubin as a potent neuroprotective compound from Yerba santa, scientists from the Salk Institute describe in detail their discovery that Yerba santa may be useful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers started by screening 400 plant extracts that were already known to have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective pharmacological properties. This attracted the attention of scientists to the flavonoid that is part of the extract of Yerba santa – sterubin.

After conducting additional testing, they found that the compound is effective against processes leading to cell death in nerve fibers, according to a press release from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Native california medicinal plant may hold promise for treating Alzheimer's.

Sterubin had an anti-inflammatory effect on certain brain cells, and was also effective for removing iron atoms from them, which, as was previously known, contributes to damage to nerve cells in people with neurodegenerative diseases.

An effective remedy

Currently, the researchers plan to test the effect of sterubin on animal diseases similar to human Alzheimer's. Now they intend to determine the levels of toxicity of the compound for animals, as well as other characteristics (duration of exposure, ways of excretion from the body, and so on).

Human trials may begin soon, but, as researcher Pamela Maher noted in a press release, the team of scientists is likely to create a synthetic derivative of sterubin, rather than using sterubin derived from the plant.

Ultimately, this is far from the first medicine rooted in nature – two well-known examples are aspirin and morphine. However, given the ever-growing number of older people (due to an increase in life expectancy), including those suffering and dying from Alzheimer's disease, the "holy herb" can become the means that will have a direct and drastic impact on the condition of such patients.

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