Jiaogulan, or A small plant that promises nothing less than immortality. Leaving aside the philosophical question of whether immortality can actually be a goal for mankind to strive for, ensuring quality of life into old age is unquestionably a desire of our society – and the cause of one of the most notable expenses in our economy. We certainly don’t want to pay for homeopathy according to Samuel Hahnemann or any other quackery with our health insurance premiums. The active ingredients of plants, however, are not part of alternative medicine, but of conventional medicine: even today, pharmaceutical research sends its scouts into the mountains of the Himalayas and the jungles of South America to find new plant-based active ingredients that can be developed into medicines.
The plant Gynostemma pentaphyllum (Jiaogulan) is used in the Chinese province of Guizhou, for example, and the above-average proportion of centenarians there is attributed to the regular consumption of tea made from this plant. Jiaogulan is an inconspicuous climbing plant from the gourd family that grows in the thickets of Asia. The ingredients of the “herb of immortality” or “herb of the eternal fountain of youth” are similar to those of ginseng, a renowned plant for maintaining health. Jiaogulan has also been found to contain antioxidants and substances that strengthen the heart and lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It is a slender, climbing, annual to perennial herbaceous plant and grows to a length of four to eight meters. It forms root tubers as a survival organ. The tendrils are forked and dried to make tea. Jiaogulan is native to China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Thailand, India and South America. However, it can also be grown in Europe under certain conditions. It colonizes thickets and thrives at altitudes of up to 3200 meters above sea level, but prefers a warm and humid climate. The plant was first described in 1406 during the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Xiao in the book “Medicinal herbs against famine”. By 2005, over 100 saponins, called gypenosides or gynosaponins, had been isolated and identified from jiaogulan. The total saponin content is ~ 2.4 % of the dried plant. Saponins as a subgroup of glycosides play an important role among the therapeutically effective components of medicinal plants. In accordance with their great structural diversity, a large number of different biological-pharmaceutical properties are also observed. Strengthening, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, expectorant/mucolytic and hormone-stimulating properties have been observed. They also support the absorption of other ingredients from the intestine and bind cholesterol. It is also thought to have a preventive effect against bowel cancer by inhibiting cell division in the bowel.
A Cup of Tea a Day keeps the Doctor away
Sources: NZZ and Wikipedia
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To be filled fresh in Zurich directly at the Berg Apotheke at
Stauffacherstrasse 26 in 8004 Zurich
(100g cost CHF 28.50, but several infusions are possible with the tea and the dried jiaogulan is very productive).
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