Herbal Devil's claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) Inhibits Reactive Oxygen Species Production

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals are highly reactive chemical species containing oxygen molecules. In other words, free radicals are unstable atoms with an unpaired electron in the outer ring.

Therefore, in order to become stable, free radicals must either donate or steal an electron from other atoms, leading to a chain reaction that can not be stopped until all electrons are paired or inhibited by antioxidants.

Believe it or not, free radicals in moderate amounts are needed for our body for cell signaling and activation of several transcriptional factors, apoptosis, immunity, and differentiation. However, overexpression of free radicles can cause damage to protein, lipid and cell alternation, leading to a number of chronic illnesses, including cancer.


Free radicals are generated as metabolic by-products by biological systems. Environmental stressors (i.e., the air we breathe, UV, ionizing radiations, pollutants, and heavy metals) and xenochemicals are also found to contribute to the great increase of ROS production.


Antioxidants are stable atom that plays a critical role in protecting the body against the attack of free radicals.

In other words, antioxidants inhibited the onset of free radical before they can cause a chain reaction in facilitating the protein, lipid and cell damage.

Antioxidants can either produced by the liver or intake from dietary sources. Under normal conditions, antioxidant enzymes produced by the body in a healthy individual are good enough to counter the bombardment of free radical attacks.

However, in people with a weakened immune system, intake dietary sources of antioxidants may be necessary.


In a healthy individual, the production of free radicals is balanced by the antioxidant enzymes produced by the body.

On finding a natural ingredient for the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with oxidative stress, scientists examined the antioxidant capacity and the content of total phenols, verbascoside, isoverbascoside, and selected iridoids in suppressing respiratory burst in terms of reactive oxygen species.

Devil's claw also known as the wood spider, is a plant of genus Harpagophytum in the family of Pedaliaceae, native to South Africa.


The plant has been used as an herb in traditional and herbal medicine to treat fever, rheumatoid arthritis, skin, gallbladder, pancreas, stomach and kidneys conditions, etc.

According to tested analysis, H. procumbens showed the highest degree of antioxidative capacity.


More precisely, in the phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) differentiation, three Harpagophytum taxa showed anti-inflammatory effects compared to control.

However, a putative hybrid between H. procumbens and H. zeyheri, in contrast, showed a pro-inflammatory effect on the response of neutrophils to F. nucleatum in comparison with treatment with the vehicle control.


Collectively, Harpagophytum taxa showed strong activity in suppressing respiratory burst associated with the chain reaction of ROS.

Taken altogether, Devil's claw may be considered an antioxidative remedy pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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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.

Sources
(1) Alteration of Neutrophil Reactive Oxygen Species Production by Extracts of Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum) by Muzila M1, Rumpunen K2, Wright H3, Roberts H3, Grant M3, Nybom H2, Sehic J2, Ekholm A2, Widén C. (PubMed)