A compound found in a Californian bush could one solar day be used to tackle mental capacity aging and maybe even Alzheimer ’s disease , allot to new inquiry . It ’s still very early days but so far , the chemical compound has been shown to have some intriguing anti - inflammatory and neuroprotective effects when screen on mouse cell in a bag .
The medicinal plant is make out as yerba santa ( Eriodictyon californicum ) , which is Spanish for " consecrated herbaceous plant " . It has been used by aboriginal Californian tribes to regale several ailments so the team looked into it , along with many other plants , when searching for promising compounds .
Yerba santa contains sterubin , a flavonoid chemical compound . Several flavonoid have neuroprotective and anti - seditious properties so the squad was interested to see what effect sterubin and other flavonoid might have on computer mouse spunk cells . They found that sterubin was efficacious against multiple persuader of cell death . The findings are reported inRedox Biology .
" This is a chemical compound that was known but discount , " senior writer Dr Pamela Maher , from the Salk Institute , said in astatement . " Not only did sterubin turn out to be much more active than the other flavonoids in yerba santa in our assays , it appears as good as , if not good than , other flavonoids we have canvas . "
The compound has a crowing impact on energy depletion and ignition of face cell , particularly microglial cellular telephone . It ’s an Fe remover , which is good as branding iron can run a persona in nerve cell damage . It also come down the accumulation of misfolded protein and minify the inflammation seen in aging nerve cells .
“ Alzheimer ’s disease is a leading cause of demise in the United States , " Maher continued . " And because age is a major risk ingredient , researchers are looking at ways to counter aging ’s effects on the mind . Our identification of sterubin as a strong neuroprotective component [ … ] is a hopeful dance step in that direction . "
The research worker now project to look into the effects of the chemical compound on last beast models of Alzheimer ’s like mouse . They are interested in determine both the effects of sterubin and its perniciousness . The squad also evoke that it could be potential to test compounds in human beings briefly , although the plants would have to be grown in standardized consideration . They say they see no major obstacles when it comes to producing a synthetic variant of sterubin .
