Rhodiola rosea in Traditional Medicine
Traditional folk medicine used R. rosea to increase physical endurance, work productivity, longevity, resistance to high altitude sickness, and to treat fatigue, depression, anemia, impotence, gastrointestinal ailments, infections, and nervous system disorders. In mountain villages of Siberia, a bouquet of roots is still given to couples prior to marriage to enhance fertility and assure the birth of healthy children.2 In Middle Asia, R. rosea tea was the most effective treatment for cold and flu during severe Asian winters. Mongolian doctors prescribed it for tuberculosis and cancer.13 For centuries, only family members knew where to harvest the wild "golden roots" and the methods of extraction.2 Siberians secretly transported the herb down ancient trails to the Caucasian Mountains where it was traded for Georgian wines, fruits, garlic, and honey. Chinese emperors sent expeditions to Siberia to bring back the "golden root" for medicinal preparations.
Linnaeus wrote of R. rosea as an astringent and for the treatment of hernia, leucorrhoea (vaginal discharge), hysteria, and headache.4,7 In 1755 R. rosea was included in the first Swedish Pharmacopoeia. Vikings used the herb to enhance their physical strength and endurance.14 German researchers described the benefits of R. rosea for pain, headache, scurvy, hemorrhoids, as a stimulant, and as an anti-inflammatory.15,16
In 1961, G.V. Krylov, a Russian botanist and taxonomist in the Department of Botany at the Novosibirsk Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, led an expedition to the cedar taiga in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia where he located and identified the "golden root" as Rhodiola rosea.17 Extracts of the R. rosea root were found to contain powerful adaptogens. Research revealed that it protected animals and humans from mental and physical stress, toxins, and cold.2,17 The quest for new medicines to treat diseases such as cancer and radiation sickness, and to enhance physical and mental performance, led to the discovery of a group of phenylpropanoids that are specific to R. rosea. (See Phytochemistry section below.)
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Endocrine and Reproductive Effects
Neuroendocrine animal studies showed that R. rosea, like other adaptogens, enhanced thyroid function without causing hyperthyroidism.81 In addition, the thymus gland functioned better and was protected from the involution that occurs with aging. The adrenal glands functioned with better reserve and without the kind of hypertrophy caused by other psychostimulants.
Egg maturation was enhanced in rats and an anabolic effect in males (increased muscle building and gonad strengthening similar to effects of low-dose testosterone) was observed in a number of species. Administration of rhodosin (extract of R. rosea for intravenous, intramuscular, or peritoneal injection) to sexually mature female mice over a period of 4 weeks prolonged menstruation from 1.3 days (control) to 2.8 days (rhodosin treated), reduced the resting period from 3.8 days (control) to 2.2 days (rhodosin treated), and increased the relative number of estrus days from 29 percent to 56 percent. In the majority of rhodosin treated animals, the number of growing follicles, the oocyte volumes, the accumulation of RNA in oocyte cytoplasm, the proliferation of the lining and glandular cells of the uterine horns, and the preparation of uterine mucosa for fertilization all increased. In sexually mature mice, rhodosin increased the mean weight of the uterine horns from 39.6+4.11 mg to 59.5+1.59 mg and the mean weight of the ovaries from 6.4+0.65 mg to 9.1+0.45 mg. However, the administration of rhodosin to sexually immature female white mice for 3 weeks did not affect sexual maturation, the onset of estrus, the weight of ovaries or uterine horns, or the maturation of follicles. Thus, it is probable that the estrogenic effects of R. rosea preparations depend upon a specific hormonal milieu.82,83
These pre-clinical investigations led to a study of R. rosea extract in women suffering from amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycles). Forty women with amenorrhea were given R. rosea (either 100 mg R. rosea extract orally twice a day for 2 weeks, or 1 ml rhodosin intramuscularly for 10 days). In some subjects the treatment cycle was repeated 2-4 times. Normal menses were restored in 25 women, 11 of whom became pregnant. In those with normal menses, the mean length of the uterine cavity increased from 5.5 cm to 7.0 cm (normal) after R. rosea treatment.82,83 One of the authors (Dr. Brown) has treated in his practice several women who had failed to conceive with standard fertility drugs, and who become pregnant within several months of beginning R. rosea extract. These preliminary clinical observations warrant controlled follow-up clinical trials. Using the in vitro estrogen receptor competition assay, Patricia Eagon, Ph.D. (personal communication, December 2001) recently found that R. rosea extract showed strong estrogen binding properties that require further characterization.
In an open study, 26 out of 35 men with erectile dysfunction and/or premature ejaculation (of 1-20 years duration) responded to R. rosea (150-200 mg/day for 3 months) with substantially improved sexual function, normalization of prostatic fluid, and an increase in 17-ketosteroids in urine.56,69
Cardioprotective Effects
Cardioprotective effects of R. rosea include: prevention of stress-induced cardiac damage,80,81,84 decreased myocardial catecholamines and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels; and reduced adrenal catecholamine release80,81 (see Figure 2). Furthermore, R. rosea activation of mu-opiate receptors in heart muscle prevented reperfusion arrhythmias in animal hearts. This effect could be blocked by naloxone injection (known to inhibit mu-opiate receptors), thus confirming that the anti-arrhythmic effect of R. rosea is associated with the mu-opiate receptors in myocardial (heart) muscle.84
, I think I've exhausted this whole subject in my head over thinking it already.
to a problem that has been pressing me big-time for the last six months. It all came to a head after I visited my parents interred ashes at the cemetery yesterday. I now what to work on, thanks. 