Health

Health benefits of Gurạdji

Quercetin
Quercetin is a flavonoid phytonutrient found in foods known to have high health benefits in preventing cellular oxidative damage such as Green tea, red wine, Elder berries, ginkgo biloba, St Johns wort and buckwheat tea.

Heart disease:

  • Research has shown that consuming foods rich in quercetin such as green tea can reduce the risk of heart disease related death in elderly men and may reduce heart disease risk factors. http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/quercetin

High Blood pressure:

  • In a double-blinded placebo controlled study published in the British Journal of Nutrition1it was found that quercetin could help lower blood pressure.

High Cholesterol:

  • Shown to significantly prevent damage to LDL cholesterol. A recent study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry4 detailed the precise mechanisms by which quercetin prevented oxidized LDL from forming plaque. In essence, quercetin stabilised macrophages and monocytes, preventing the typical adverse immune system activity that leads to plaque accumulation.

Allergies, asthma, hay fever and hives:

  • In test tubes, quercetin prevents immune cells from releasing histamines, which are chemicals that cause allergic reactions. As a result, researchers think that quercetin may help reduce symptoms of allergies, including runny nose, watery eyes, hives, and swelling of the face and lips. (http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/quercetin)

Prostate pain and cancer treatment:

  • Quercetin is used for treating conditions such as prostate pain and swelling (inflammation).
  • A study published in the March, 2012 issue of Environmental Toxicology investigated the role that quercetin might play in causing apoptosis, or death, in prostate cancer cells. The researchers treated prostate cancer cells with quercetin at 24 and 48 hours in various doses. They found that after 48 hours, cells treated with quercetin were killed. – See more at: http://www.prostate.net/2012/prostate-cancer/quercetin-for-prostate-cancer/#sthash.5UkCcZkj.dpuf
  • Another study conducted by researchers at the State University of New York, Buffalo published in the December, 2008 issue of The Prostate noted that quercetin may exhibit beneficial actions on cancer cells. These researchers also treated prostate cancer cells with quercetin. They found that the cells treated with this flavonoid exhibited decreased proliferation and viability. The quercetin also depleted the levels of heat shock protein (Hsp) 90, which decreased viability and induced cancer cell apoptosis. The researchers noted that this did not occur in the healthy, cancer-free prostate cells. This last bit is significant in that chemotherapy and other prostate cancer treatments can result in severe and debilitating side effects, whereas a treatment derived from quercetin may have the potential to bypass those side effects. – See more at: http://www.prostate.net/2012/prostate-cancer/quercetin-for-prostate-cancer/#sthash.5UkCcZkj.dpuf

Cancer fighting properties:

Quercetin has been shown repeatedly to have anti-carcinogenic properties that may prevent the development of certain cancers. Researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the role of flavonoids in the treatment of tumor growths. Quercetin treatment may be a possible therapeutic agent in the treatment of the following cancers:

Leukemia:

  • Quercetin has been shown to inhibit leukemic T-cells from progressing in humans by stopping the phase of the cell cycle in which the cancer would be able to duplicate itself.

Lung Cancer:

  • In one study, the combination of both apple and onion intake was associated with the reduction of lung cancer by up to 50 percent in men and women.3,5

Breast Cancer:

  • The anticancer properties of quercetin are believed to be a result of several cancer fighting capabilities. Quercetin may suppress the activity of the mutant P53 gene common in breast cancer, which is also responsible for the progression of tumor growth.

Neuroblastoma:

  • Developing nerve cells can become cancerous in children and infants. Quercetin may prevent toxins from creating oxidative damage to these cells during development which can lead to neuroblastoma.

Colon Carcinoma:

  • High dosage amounts of quercetin have also been shown to limit the cancerous cell’s ability to proliferate in the large intestine and cause colon carcinoma.

Post cancer treatment nervous system repair:

  • Most cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation also damage the nervous system and have common side effects such as peripheral neuropathy, headaches, and chronic pain. Some studies have demonstrated that quercetin can help reduce this neuropathic damage and the unwanted side effects that come with it.
  • Quercetin and its flavonoid partner rutin synergize to protect neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord that play a role in sensory information and pain perception.
  • Fruits and vegetables in the prevention of cellular oxidative damage.
  • Nutraceutical Antioxidants as Novel Neuroprotective Agents
  • The antioxidant effects of the flavonoids rutin and quercetin inhibit oxaliplatin-induced chronic painful peripheral neuropathy
  • Quercetin protects against lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in rats through suppression of inflammation and oxidative stress
  • Cell death and neuronal arborization upon quercetin treatment in rat neurons.
  • Quercetin transiently increases energy expenditure but persistently decreases circulating markers of inflammation in C57BL/6J mice fed a high-fat diet

Keampferol

Keampferol is a strong antioxidant and helps to prevent oxidative damage of our cells, lipids and DNA. Kaempferol seems to prevent arteriosclerosis by inhibiting the oxidation of low density lipoprotein and the formation of platelets in the blood. Studies have also confirmed that kaempferol acts as a chemopreventive agent, which means that it inhibits the formation of cancer cells.

An in vitro study by Jan Kowalski et al (Pharmacological Reports, 2005) showed that kaempferol inhibits monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1). MCP-1 plays a role in the initial steps of atherosclerotic plaque formation.

The flavonoids kaempferol and quercetin seems to act synergistically in reducing cell proliferation of cancer cells, meaning that the combined treatments with quercetin and kaempferol are more effective than the additive effects of each flavonoid. This was a conclusion from a study by ML Ackland et al (In Vivo, Feb 2005) titled “Synergistic antiproliferative action of the flavonols quercitin and kaempferol in cultured human cancer cell lines””.

A study “Inhibition of P-glycoprotein function and expression by kaempferol and quercetin” by the Chiang Mai University, Thailand, found that kaempferol can help to fight cancer because it reduces the resistance of cancer cells to anti-cancer drugs such as vinbalstine and paclitaxel.
More info on Kaempferol at: http://www.phytochemicals.info/phytochemicals/kaempferol.php

• Sesquiterpene lactones (what it is and benefits)

• Inositol (what it is and benefits)

• Caffeic-quinic acid (what it is and benefits)

• Emodin and Aloe emodin (what it is and benefits)

Both have been researched for many cancer treatments such as breast, brain, stomach and cervical

• cell-restoring and laxative activity

• research indicated that both two molecules are capable of inhibiting breast cancer cellpoliferation by down-regulating ERα protein levels, thereby suppressing ERα transcriptional activation http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/376123/

• It is used in traditional Indian medicine for constipation, colic, skin diseases, worm infestation, and infections (Heber 2007

• It is also used in Trinidad and Tobago for hypertension (Lans 2006) and among Mexican Americans for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM;Coronado et al. 2004)

• It may inhibit cell growth and angiogenesis in human colon cancers(ref), It “could be a useful chemotherapeutical agent for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma(ref),” “Emodin affects the expression of genes involved in various cellular functions and plays important roles in cell apoptosis, tumor metastasis and chemotherapy-resistance, which suggests emodin might become an effective chemopreventive or chemotherapeutic agent for small cell lung cancer(ref),” “Emodin induces apoptosis in human promyeloleukemic HL-60 cells—(ref).” Further, Emodin has unique antibacterial properties, “taking into account its unique cytotoxicity profile and mode of action, aloe-emodin might represent a conceptually new lead antitumor drug(ref).” And emodin is “a potential lead compound for further anti-bacterial drug discovery(ref).” To sum it up, emodin appears to be another phyochemical whose possibly important health properties are just-now being systematically explored.
• Alzheimers is one of the most common forms of dementia and little is known what causes this disease. Results provided in research by Sun YP et al, confirm evidence for the application of emodin in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25590369
• Cervical cancer: research demonstrates that Aloe-emodin inhibited the growth of HeLa Cervical cancer )cells. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18031614
• Stomach, colon and pancreatic cancer: Numerous studies have found emodin inhibits cell proliferation, causes apoptosis (cell death), and suppression of angiogenesis in colon cancer http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4151688/, pancreatic cancer http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0042146 , stomach cancer http://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?pr15187 .
• Cardiovascular disease: results also provide a rationale for the use of emodin in the treatment of impairment of the regulation of the cardiovascular homeostasis http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24751713