Traditional Chinese Medicine: Prunella Vulgaris

Prunella vulgaris belongs to the genus Prunella in the Lamiaceae family. It belongs to Traditional Chinese Medicine and is mainly produced in Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, and Zhejiang, etc. with rich resources. Prunella vulgaris is cold in property and hot and bitter in taste and targets the liver and gallbladder meridians, with efficacy including liver fire clearing, eyesight improving, heat clearing, diuresis, mass eliminating, and swelling relieving. It is commonly used to treat liver-fire stagnation, swelling and pain of the eye, acute hepatitis, and hypertension, etc.

Prunella vulgaris contains multiple chemical components, including polysaccharides, organic acids, flavonoids, triterpenoids and the glycoside compounds thereof, and sterols, etc. Polysaccharides account for about 10% in Prunella vulgaris, being the important active ingredient with the highest content in Prunella vulgaris. 3 active polysaccharides P1-P3 have been separated and purified from Prunella vulgaris in recent years, and the component analysis has shown that their composition includes galactose, glucose, mannose, xylose, arabinose, and rhamnose. Organic acids in Prunella vulgaris mainly include phenolic acids and long-chain fatty acids. Phenolic acids are an active ingredient extensively existing in Prunella vulgaris, and according to literature reports, phenolic acid in Prunella vulgaris mainly include rosmarinic acid, butyl rosmarinate, caffeic acid, tanshinol, methyl rosmarinate, and 3,4-Dihydroxy-benzoic acid, etc. Long-chain fatty acids in Prunella vulgaris are mostly oleic acid, arachidonic acid, lauric acid, and palmitic acid, etc.

Prunella vulgaris has apparent anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant and immunoregulation actions, etc. According to related research, Prunella vulgaris produces pharmacological actions mainly by regulating the following three signaling pathways. 1. Prunella vulgaris can activate the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway to promote up-regulated Bax expression and down-regulated Bcl-2 expression to thus promote Cyto C release, activate caspase-3 and induce apoptosis; 2. Prunella vulgaris can activate caspase-8 via FAS signaling pathway to further activate caspase-3,6,7 and promote apoptosis; 3. Prunella vulgaris can regulate immunity via NF-KB signaling pathway: tumor necrosis factor (TNF) can act on tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) to cause the release of factors such as NIK, IKK, and IKB to activate NF-KB signaling pathway and produce inflammation, and Prunella vulgaris can inhibit NF-KB signaling pathway to thus inhibit inflammation and initiate immunoregulation.

Clinical application of Prunella vulgaris

Prunella vulgaris has the heat-fire clearing, mass eliminating, and swelling relieving efficacy and is mainly used to treat thyroid diseases and breast diseases clinically.

1. Treatment of thyroid diseases

Clinical studies have confirmed that Prunella vulgaris oral liquid, as one of Chinese herbal extracts, has significant efficacy in treating goiter and subacute thyroiditis, etc. According to a scholar’s research of the therapeutic effects of Prunella vulgaris oral liquid in goiter patients with different thyroid functional states, the combination of classical treatment and Prunella vulgaris oral liquid could make thyroid size decrease more significantly; for nodular goiter with qi and phlegm stagnation, taking Prunella vulgaris oral liquid for a course of 3 months could effectively reduce thyroid nodule size, and the nodule size improving effects will be better if it is used in combination with Euthyrox.

Prunella vulgaris oral liquid cannot only significantly improve the therapeutic effects against goiter, but it also has significant efficacy in treating subacute thyroiditis. The efficacy of the combination of Prunella vulgaris oral liquid and small-dose prednisone in treating subacute thyroiditis is better than prednisone routine treatment, and the combination with Prunella vulgaris oral liquid to reduce prednisone dose can reduce the recurrence rate. The triple therapy of Prunella vulgaris oral liquid, prednisone tablets, and levothyroxine tablets in treating middle-aged and elderly people with subacute thyroiditis can significantly improve the efficacy, reduce the recurrence rate, rapidly relieve symptoms, shorten the treatment course, and significantly reduce the hormone use.

2. Treatment of breast diseases

Prunella vulgaris oral liquid is extensively used to treat breast diseases; wherein, its efficacy in treating cyclomastopathy and mastitis is significant. Taking Prunella vulgaris oral liquid for 4 treatment courses can cure mild to moderate cyclomastopathy. Prunella vulgaris oral liquid can improve cyclomastopathy symptoms by regulating patients’ dyslipidemia; treated with Prunella vulgaris oral liquid, mammary pain and lumps can be significantly relieved, and breast ultrasound and lipid testing show the significant improvement of patients’ cyclomastopathy. Prunella vulgaris oral liquid also has apparent pain-killing, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, blood circulation promoting, and stasis removing effects; it has stasis eliminating and removing effects against breast hyperplasia nodules at each stage and apparent inhibition against the breast hyperplasia caused by estradiol valerate. The efficacy of the combination of Prunella vulgaris oral liquid and cefdinir dispersible tablets in treating chronic mastitis is significant. Prunella vulgaris oral liquid can promote the elimination of the inflammation of patients with chronic mastitis and reduce the recurrence. Furthermore, research shows that Prunella vulgaris oral liquid can also improve the therapeutic effects against acute mastitis in combination with amoxicillin.

3. Treatment of other diseases

Prunella vulgaris oral liquid has the efficacy of clearing liver fire, clearing away the residual heat located at shaoyang channel, harmonizing liver-spleen, and harmonizing yingfen and weifen and has significant efficacy in treating chronic idiopathic urticaria. According to research, the combination of Prunella vulgaris oral liquid and loratadine has significant advantages over loratadine in terms of therapeutic effect and recurrence rate control. Prunella vulgaris can also be used for hypertension due to liver depression transforming into fire: it can improve the effective rate in patients and can be used as the adjuvant treatment of hypertension patients with symptoms belonging to liver depression transforming into fire.

Prunella vulgaris is one of the components of Guangdong herbal tea, however, no health product added with Prunella vulgaris was found according to my query of information relating to special foods on the website of the State Administration for Market Regulation of China. The related information queried on the National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA) is organized in the following table. Prunella vulgaris formulations mainly include Prunella vulgaris paste, Prunella vulgaris tablets, Prunella vulgaris granules, Prunella vulgaris oral liquid, and Prunella vulgaris capsules, etc., including 16 paste products, 4 granules products, 1 tablet product, 1 capsule product, 2 syrup products, and 1 oral liquid product.

As one of the traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, Prunella vulgaris has a high medicinal value. According to related modern pharmacological research, Prunella vulgaris contains polysaccharides and has antioxidant, immunocompetence regulating, antibacterial and anti-tumor pharmacological actions, etc., with good application prospects in the pharmaceutical industry. Prunella vulgaris is expected to also have good application prospects in food and health product industries, etc. as more than a Chinese medicinal herb, as people pay attention to a healthy diet and new beverages rise.

References:

[1]  姚洋,李定祥,张杰.夏枯草药理作用与临床应用研究进展[J].中国中医药现代远程教育,2018,16(05):157-160.

      Yao Yang, Li Dingxiang, Zhang Jie. Research Progress on Pharmacological Activity and Clinical Application of Prunella Vulgaris [J]. Chinese Medicine Modern Distance Education of China, 2018,16(05):157-160. 

[2] NMPA, pharmaceutical product query http://www.nmpa.gov.cn/WS04/CL2042/

About the author: Xiaonisha, a practitioner in food science and technology, graduated from the School of Food Science and Engineering in the South China University of Technology as a Master of Food Science, and now works at a large drug R&D company in China, engaging in R&D of nutritional food.

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