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...
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