Your Guide to Ayurveda
Treatments and Therapies > > Ayurveda and Liver Damage
Wagner H, Geyer B, Yoshinobu K, Govind SR.. Eclipta alba and Wedelia calendulacea are traditional Ayurvedic herbs which grow abundantly in the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world. In Ayurvedic medicine Eclipta alba is said to be the best drug for the treatment of liver cirrhosis and infective hepatitis. Both of these medicines are widely used in India for liver enlargement, jaundice and other ailments of the liver and gall bladder.
Using fresh extracts of rat liver, researchers studied the protective effects of the plants against treatment with known liver toxins carbon tetrachloride and the toxin from the Amanita mushroom (phalloidin). The results showed that at therapeutic concentrations Eclipta conveyed complete protection on the liver cells. In fact the hepato protective effect was the most prominent of any natural extract that the researchers had ever screened. In vivo studies on phalloidin-treated mice resulted in no losses, as compared to 70% mortality in non-treated controls. Wedelia showed considerable anti-hepatotoxic and protective effects against carbon tetrachloride induced liver destruction, far in excess of those observed with silybin.
The researchers concluded that the active ingredient in both cases was a coumestan extracted from both plants called wedelolactone. A separate study showed that wedelolactone was a potent and selective inhibitor of the potent inflamatory chemical, 5-lipoxygenase, the inhibition occurring via extremely aggressive oxygen radical scavenging. A Peruvian herb, Mutista acuminata ("cinchicurma") also showed protective effects on the liver, and is a traditional Chilean remedy reputed to be of use in kidney and liver disorders. The coumarins isolated from the herb behaved in a similiar protective manner as Wedelia and Eclipta. Other members of the Mutista tribe are medically noteworthy: Mutista viciaefolia has traditional use in heart disease, hysteria and epilepsy. Mutista retrorsta, a reported cancer remedy, has many traditional uses: a tea of the flowers as a diuretic, the bark for malaria and the leaves as a poultice for ulcers.
Wagner H, Geyer B, Yoshinobu K, Govind SR. Coumestans as the Main Active Principles of the Liver Drugs Eclipta alba and Wedelia calendulacea. Planta Medica 1986:5: 370-2