Resilience in Chronic Stress Enhanced by Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants
Not only in humans, but even fruit flies, such as Drosophila melanogaster can be induced with symptoms resembling depression due to chronic stress.
However, promising evidence has been found by researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany working with the BENFRA Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center in Portland, Oregon about the potential that traditional medicinal plants offer in alleviating these symptoms.
Stress Effects Revealed through Model of Fruit Flies
Roland Strauss and his research team at JGU have thoroughly explored the intricacies of stress resilience as it affects the nervous system in their use of Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism.
Studies have shown that, when subjected to prolonged stressful periods, these fruit flies exhibit changes in their behavior.
Prolonged exposure to stressors significantly reduces their courtship behavior, makes them lose interest in food consumption and greatly reduces their willingness to move around experimental apparatuses.
Stress Resilience Induced by Ayurvedic Plants
Researchers discovered that preventive treatment with two well-known Ayurvedic plants could enhance the resilience of fruit flies subjected to continuous stress. The stressed fruit flies showed no depressive behaviors when treated proactively this way.
Helen Holvoet who is one of Professor Strauss’s doctoral candidates and lead author of two published papers emphasized the benefit of using plants containing biologically-active ingredients.
They are referred to as adaptogens because they include substances which aid adaptation to high physical or emotional stress.
Why Medicinal Plants Are Better than Conventional Drugs
The first very essential factor regarding medicinal plants over typical pharmaceuticals is their constitution which includes various active botanical substances acting upon different stress-related pathways.
As Holvoet states this explains why these supplements are less likely to cause bad side effects compared to subjection of isolated substances in pure form. Moreover, they may act in addition to existing pharmacotherapies.
Testing Ayurvedic Plants: Withania somnifera and Centella asiatica
The collaborative project was done so as to investigate two Ayurvedic Medicinal plants, Withania somnifera (commonly known as ashwagandha) and Centella asiatica (Indian pennywort), in terms of their effectiveness towards stress.
The research team found that this is the case when the plants were given to the fruit flies prior to being exposed to long term stress.
This approach ensured far better resistance by these animals, thus they did not develop depressive-like states.
Stressing Component Identified as Chlorogenic Acid
In their study, scientists found that chlorogenic acid which is present in Centella asiatica acted as a very strong prophylactic substance against stress.
It is important to note that this acid is extremely prevalent among various botanical resources especially coffee beans, valerian and St. John’s wort which all possess significant anxiolytic properties.
Dr. Burkhard Poeck, one of the participants of the research conducted on extraction methods stressed the importance of extraction methods used in supplement production.
According to them, aqueous extracts obtained from Withania somnifera showed better prophylactic effects than alcohol ones did thus providing evidence for the significance of preparation techniques.
Understanding Chlorogenic Acid’s Mechanism of Action
As such, Professor Strauss revealed that they had made a discovery regarding chlorogenic acid’s specific target protein in Drosophila – calcineurin protein phosphatase.
This protein plays a major role in mediating signaling pathways and occurs abundantly in human nervous system.
In addition, identifying how it interacts with chlorogenic acid will help scientists understand mechanisms underlying stress resilience leading to novel avenues for fundamental resilience research.
In conclusion, these revolutionary findings do not just explain how some Ayurvedic plants relieve stress in the models of fruit flies but also identify chlorogenic acid and other components that may help alleviate depression-like disorders caused by stress.
Such discoveries may lead to new ways of treating stress-related conditions in humans thus completely altering the way mental health is addressed.
