Effects of Cuscuta

Do you know what dodder is? I believe many people don't know much about it and don't know what it is used for. Dodder is also called silk-spinning seed and rootless vine. It is a parasitic plant with a twined stem and yellow color. In Shanghai, dodder blooms in September and the fruit will mature in October. Let us learn about the effects of dodder, especially its medicinal value.

Cuscuta has many functions. This plant is very good for our body and can be used as a health-care medicine. It has a strong aphrodisiac effect and can also regulate women's endocrine system. These effects are very common and are why we like it very much.

Pharmacological Action

Aphrodisiac effect: Experiments have shown that Cuscuta has the effect of improving the sexual vitality of fruit flies and significantly increasing their mating rate. The strength of its effect is positively correlated with the dosage concentration. For the "yang deficiency" model of mice caused by hydrocortisone, the use of Cuscuta can have a certain recovery effect on the symptoms of yang deficiency, but it failed to restore the animals to the level of the normal control group. Experiments show that oral administration of Cuscuta water decoction to "yang deficiency" mice can significantly increase their body weight, kidney weight, thymus weight, white blood cell count, red blood cell count, hemoglobin and superoxide dismutase activity; oral administration to male mice can significantly prolong the mice's swimming time and survival time under hypoxic conditions, and also enhance the nonspecific resistance of mice.

Effect on endocrine: It has been reported that oral administration of Cuscuta chinensis water extract to female rats can increase the weight of the anterior pituitary, ovaries and uterus of rats, but has no effect on the level of luteinizing hormone (LH) in plasma; it increases the number of HCG/LH receptors in rat ovaries, while the Ka value is lower than that of the control group. Oral administration of Cuscuta chinensis water extract to ovariectomized rats can increase the LH secretion response of the pituitary gland of ovariectomized anesthetized rats to the injection of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LRH). The plasma LH level is the highest at 90 minutes after injection, which can be increased by 241.58%. Therefore, the reporter believes that Cuscuta chinensis can increase the luteinizing function of the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary. This effect is not due to their direct stimulation of the secretion of pituitary luteinizing hormone, but due to increased responsiveness of the pituitary gland to LRH and the ovary to LH.

Effects on heart rate and blood pressure: Cuscuta soy sauce (made from Cuscuta and bean cake), infusion and tincture can enhance the contractility of isolated toad hearts. The former can increase heart rate, while the latter two can reduce it. Intravenous injection of the infusion into anesthetized dogs has the effect of lowering blood pressure.

Effect of delaying cataract formation: Studies have shown that dodder seed water extract given to rats orally can delay cataract formation in rats induced by galactose, with the percentage of transparent lenses being 33.3%. Its mechanism of action is that dodder seed can reduce the activity of aldose reductase in rats with cataracts caused by galactose, enhance the activity of polyol dehydrogenase, hexokinase and 6-phosphate glucose dehydrogenase, and inhibit and correct the abnormal changes of enzymes in the lens of rats with cataracts.

Other effects: Oral administration of 1g/kg of the water extract of the whole plant of Cuscuta chinensis to mice can significantly reduce the excitability and convulsions caused by electrical stimulation of mice, and can enhance the anesthetic effect of phenobarbital on mice under hypoxic conditions and prolong their survival time. The extract can antagonize the excitatory effects caused by amphetamine and show obvious analgesic activity.

Does Cuscuta have many effects? These effects are common pharmacological effects and are very good for our body. In particular, the effect of lowering blood pressure is very obvious. Nowadays, hypertension is very common. Hypertension will have many impacts on our lives. We should pay attention to timely control of blood pressure.