Teasel Root

(Dipsacus asper)

Family
Dipsacaceae (the teasel family). Some, but not all, authors treat Dipsacaceae as a subfamily of the broader (honeysuckle family).1,2

Parts Used
Root

Description
Teasel root is a perennial plant widely distributed in the highland region (1500 to 3700 meters above sea level) of China. It is usually about two meters in height, has a basal rosette of soft, hairy green leaves and has white or lemon yellow flowers on erect stems.3

Traditional and Empirical Use
The dried roots of the Asian teasel species Dipsacus asper (=Dipsacus asperoides) and Dipsacus japonica, are both known as xuduan or radix dipsaci, which translates to reconnect (xu) that which has been severed (duan). Dipsacus asper has been used widely, and for a long time, as a remedy for bone
health and as an anti-inflammatory herbal medicine including for the treatment of lower back pain, knee pain, rheumatoid arthritis, postmenopausal osteoporosis, bone fractures, joint disease, muscle and joint pains, and for those symptoms in Lyme disease. It is traditionally used not only for broken
bones but also for ruptured tendons, traumatic hematoma (therefore commonly used by martial artists) and for broken skin such as deep cuts. It is also known as an anti-aging agent and used for the treatment of threatened miscarriage and uterine bleeding. Teasel root is considered a yang tonic in TCM which acts on the liver and kidneys. TCM theory indicates that the bone and the marrow (the portion of the bone structure that is involved in generating blood cells) are dominated by the kidney. The bone is strong and powerful when the kidney essence and qi are rich and conversely, when there is a shortage of kidney essence and qi, there will be lack of bone marrow and the bone is weak.4,5 American herbalist Matthew Wood pioneered the use of Dipsacus fullonum (which he calls by it’s former botanical name and synonym Dipsacus sylvestris. Common names include Fuller’s teasel and American wild teasel) after reading about its relative Japanese teasel root (Dipsacus japonica) used in TCM for hundreds of years. He says there
is little history of use of teasel in Western herbal medicine. “Teasel is excellent for chronic inflammation of the muscles, with limitation of movement and great pain….Teasel root is well indicated in chronic cases where the person becomes arthritic, the muscles all over are stiff and sore and they are eventually incapacitated.” Lyme disease is a tick borne bacterial infection caused by a spirochete (a flexible spirally
twisted bacterium). In relation to Lyme disease Wood says “after entering the body through a tick bite, the spirochetes burrow into the muscles where they settle down to live. Here they produce chronic inflammation and pain, with destruction of muscles and joints.” He explains that teasel root is not a
herbal antibiotic. “Instead of killing the bacteria itself it actually changes the environment in the body in order to engage the body’s own capabilities to kill off Lyme bacteria. By warming the cells and muscles it invites the Lyme bacteria into the bloodstream where the body can then detox.6 There is no published scientific evidence to back up these claims.

Constituents
Phenolic acids including caffeic acid, cinnamic acid derivatives, vanillic acid and caffeoylquinic acid; iridoid
glycosides including loganin, cantleyoside, triplostoside A and sweroside derivaties; furofuran lignans; sterol compounds such as β-sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol; triterpenoids such as oleanic acid, akebiasaponin D and a series of unique asperosaponins.7

Herbal actions:

• Anti inflammatory : A substance that reduces inflammation
• Immunomodulatory: A substance which modulates and activity of the immune system
• Analgesic : A substance that reduces pain
• Bacteriostatic :A substance that prevents the multiplying of bacteria without destroying them

Pharmacological Activity

Bone health activity It has been suggested that teasel root may be a good botanical alternative for progestogen used in hormone replacement therapy following a 2014 in vivo study which showed that teasel root has progestogenic activity which may be due to phytosterol derivatives. The extracts of 13 Chinese medicinal plants used to treat menopausal symptoms, including osteoporosis, were analyzed for progestogenic and antiprogestogen properties. Teasel root was the only herb to show significant (p < 0.05) progestogenic activity at lower than 40μg/mL of extracts compared to control. Progesterone contributes to bone mass formation. Progesterone alone is not effective therapy for osteoporosis however it is recommended to be used in combination with oestrogen and is more effective than using oestrogen alone.8 Teasel root could be used as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of human arthritis following a recent preclinical trial where it exhibited anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects in induced arthritic mice. Along with reduced arthritic scores and serum levels of relevant antibodies and certain proinflammatory cytokines improvement in joint architecture was also observed.

A preclinical study concluded that teasel root has the potential to be used for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.Treatment with teasel root for 16 weeks slowed down the body
weight gain, and prevented the loss of bone mass, induced by removing the ovaries of female rats. The prevention effect on bone loss was due to altering the rate of bone remodeling which could be indicated by the decreased level of bone turnover markers.10 In rats teasel root, when taken orally, increased bone
density and altered bone cells. The results showed that the consumption of teasel root caused a 4.5% increase in the bone volume/tissue volume ratio.11

Anti-aging activity
Teasel root may possess therapeutic effects against Alzheimer’s disease. Excess aluminum (Al) exposure
impairs neurocognitive function in humans and animals. Epidemiologic studies have shown a potential link between chronic Al exposure and Alzheimer’s disease. A preclinical study evaluated the protective effects of teasel root against cognitive impairment and overexpression of a key pathogenic molecule in Alzheimer’s disease (hippocampal β-amyloid protein (Aβ)) induced by chronic Al exposure in rats. Vitamin
E was used as a positive control. Following exposure to 0.3% aluminum chloride solution for 90 days in their drinking water the animals displayed a striking decrease (>80%) in step through delays in the passive avoidance task (passive avoidance are fear motivated tests classically used to assess short term or long-term memory on small laboratory animals. The passive avoidance paradigm requires the subjects to
behave contrary to their innate tendencies for preference of dark areas and avoidance of bright ones) and a significant increase (123%) in the number of Aβ immunoreactive cells in the hippocampus compared to controls. Al exposed animals were then randomly assigned to receive teasel root (4g/kg) or vitamin E (40mg/kg) treatment for up to five months. Both teasel root and vitamin E significantly improved the animal’s performance in the passive avoidance task and suppressed the overexpression of hippocampal Aβ immunoreactivity. The effects of teasel root, but not vitamin E, increased with time of treatment.12

Antifungal activity
Teasel root showed in vivo antifungal activity when evaluated against the plant fungi Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum coccodes, Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei, Magnaporthe grisea, Phytophthora infestans, Puccinia recondita and Rhizoctonia solani. Synergistic and additive interactions were observed between several of the sterol compounds.1

References

1. Landrein S, Prener G, Chase MW, Clarkson AJ. Abelia and relatives: phylogenetics of Linnaeeae Dipsacales–Caprifoliaceae s.l.) and a new interpretation of their inflorescence morphology, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 1 August 2012;169(4):692–713, https://doi.org/10.1111 j.1095-8339.2012.01257.x

2.Donoghue MJ, Olmstead RG, Smith JF, Palmer JD. Phylogenetic Relationships of Dipsacales Based on RbcL Sequences. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 1992;79(2):333-45. doi:10.2307/2399772.

3. Park I, Yang S, Kim WJ, Noh P, Lee HO, Moon BC. Authentication of Herbal Medicines Dipsacus asper and Phlomoides umbrosa Using DNA Barcodes, Chloroplast Genome, and Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) Marker. Molecules 2018;23:1748

4.Song J, Lim K, Kang S, Noh J, Kim K, Bae O, et al. Procoagulant and prothrombotic effects of the herbal medicine, Dipsacus asper and its active ingredient, dipsacus saponin C, on human platelets. Journal of
Thrombosis and Haemostasis. 2012;10:895-906. doi:10.1111/j.1538 -7836.2012.04685.x

5.Sun X, Zhang Y, Yang Y, Liu J, Zheng W, Ma B, et al. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of furofuran lignans, iridoid glycosides, and phenolic acids in Radix Dipsaci by UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS and UHPLC-PDA. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2018 May 30;154:40-47. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2018.03.002.Epub 2018 Mar 3

6.Wood M. The Book of Herbal Wisdom. California: North Atlantic Books. p. 232-40

7.Tian XY, Wang YH, Liu HY, Yu SS, Fang W. On the Chemical Constituents of Dipsacus asper. Chemical & pharmaceutical bulletin. 2008;55:1677 10.1248/cpb.55.1677

8.Ahmed HM, Yeh JY, Tang YC, Cheng WT, Ou BR. Molecular screening of Chinese medicinal plants for progestogenic and anti-progestogenic activity. J Biosci. 2014 Jun;39(3):453-61.

9.ung HW1, Jung JK, Son KH, Lee DH, Kang TM, Kim YS, Park YK. Inhibitory effects of the root extract of Dipsacus asperoides C.Y. Cheng et al T.M.Ai on collagen-induced arthritis in mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 2012
Jan 6;139(1):98-103. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2011.10.020. Epub 2011 Oct 20

10.Liu ZG, Zhang R, Li C, Ma X, Liu L, Wang JP, et al. The osteoprotective effect of Radix Dipsaci extract in ovariectomized rats. J Ethnopharmacol. 2009 May 4;123(1):74-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2009.02.025. Epub 2009 Mar 4.

11. Wong RW, Rabie AB, Hägg EU. The effect of crude extract from Radix dipsaci on bone in mice. Phytother Res. 2007 Jun;21(6):596-8.

12.Zhang ZJ, Qian YH, Hu HT, Yang J, Yang GD. The herbal medicine Dipsacus asper Wall extract reduces the cognitive deficits and overexpression of β-amyloid protein induced by aluminum exposure. Life
Sciences. 2003;73(19):2443-2454.

13.Choi NH, Jang JY, Choi GJ, Choi YH, Jang KS, Nguyen VT, et al. Antifungal activity of sterols and dipsacus saponins isolated from Dipsacus asper roots against phytopathogenic fungi. Pestic Biochem
Physiol. 2017 Sep;141:103-108. doi: 10.1016/j.pestbp.2016.12.006.E pub 2016 Dec 18

14.Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China (English ed.). Guangzhou, Guangdong Science and Technology Press, 1992. p.160-1

15.Xiao TT, Xu M, Yang XH, Kok L, Chow YL, Zhao ZZ, et al. The evaluation on embryotoxicity of Dipsaci Radix with mice and embryonic stem cells.J Ethnopharmacol. 2014;151(1):114-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2013.10.001.Epub 2013 Oct 31.

16.Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China (English ed.). Guangzhou,
Guangdong Science and Technology Press, 1992.. p.160-1

http://www.herbalextracts.com.au

Herbal Tincture / liquid Extract 50 ml Teasel Root – Cullulla Rd