Five Flavors Of Good Health

Schisandra chinensis, henceforth Schisandra, is also called the “five flavor fruit”, for covering the culinary bases of sweet, salt, bitter, sour, and pungent.

It can be eaten as a fruit (small red berries), juiced from the fruit, or otherwise extracted into supplements (dried powder of the fruit being a common one).

It has long enjoyed usage in various traditional medicines, especially in China and Siberia.

So, what are its health claims, and how does the science stack up?

Menopause

Most of the studies are mouse studies, and we prefer studies on humans, so here’s a small (n=36) randomized clinical trial that concluded…

❝Schisandra chinensis can be a safe and effective complementary medicine for menopausal symptoms, especially for hot flushes, sweating, and heart palpitations❞

~ Dr. Joon Young Park & Dr. Kye Hyun Kim

Read more: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of Schisandra chinensis for menopausal symptoms

Antioxidant (and perhaps more)

Like many berries, it’s a good source of lignans offering antioxidant effects:

Antioxidant Effects of Schisandra chinensis Fruits and Their Active Constituents

Lignans usually have anticancer effects too (which is reasonably, given what is antioxidant is usually anticancer and anti-inflammatory as well, by the same mechanism) but those have not yet been studied in schisandra specifically.

Antihepatotoxicity

In other words, it’s good for your liver. At least, so animal studies tell us, because human studies haven’t been done yet for this one. The effect is largely due to its antioxidant properties, but it seems especially effective for the liver—which is not surprising, giving the liver’s regeneration mechanism.

Anyway, here’s a fascinating study that didn’t even need to use the fruit itself, just the pollen from the plant, it was that potent:

Antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects of Schisandra chinensis pollen extract on CCl4-induced acute liver damage in mice

Athletics enhancer

While it’s not yet filling the shelves of sports nutrition stores, we found a small (n=45) study with healthy post-menopausal women who took either 1g of schisandra (experimental group) or 1g of starch (placebo group), measured quadriceps muscle strength and resting lactate levels over the course of a 12 week intervention period, and found:

❝Supplementation of Schisandra chinensis extract can help to improve quadriceps muscle strength as well as decrease lactate level at rest in adult women ❞

~ Dr. Jin Kee Park et al.

Read more: Effect of Schisandra Chinensis Extract Supplementation on Quadriceps Muscle Strength and Fatigue in Adult Women: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Anti-Alzheimers & Anti-Parkinsons

The studies for this are all in vitro, but that’s because it’s hard to find volunteers willing to have their brains sliced and looked at under a microscope while they’re still alive.

Nevertheless, the results are compelling, and it seems uncontroversial to say that schisandra, or specifically Schisandrin B, a compound it contains, has not only anti-inflammatory properties, but also neuroprotective properties, and specifically blocks the formation of excess amyloid-β peptides in the brain (which are critical for the formation of amyloid plaque, as found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients):

The influence of Schisandrin B on a model of Alzheimer’s disease using β-amyloid protein Aβ1-42-mediated damage in SH-SY5Y neuronal cell line and underlying mechanisms

Is it safe?

For most people, yes! Some caveats:

• As it can stimulate the uterus, it’s not recommended if you’re pregant.
• Taking more than the recommended amount can worsen symptoms of heartburn, GERD, ulcers, or other illnesses like that.

And as ever, do speak with our own doctor/pharmacist if unsure, as your circumstances may vary and we cannot cover all possibilities here.

Where can I get some?

We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

Enjoy!

Hawthorn, The Heart-Healthy Helper

Hawthorn, a berry of the genus Crataegus (there are many species, but they seem to give more or less the same benefits), has been enjoyed for hundreds of years, if not thousands, as a herbal remedy for many ailments, mostly of the cardiovascular, digestive, and/or endocrine systems:

Crataegus pinnatifida: Chemical Constituents, Pharmacology, and Potential Applications

Antioxidant & Anti-inflammatory

Like most berries, it’s full of helpful polyphenols, with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Indeed, as Dr. Nabavi et al. wrote,

❝Crataegus monogyna Jacq. (hawthorn) is one of the most important edible plants of the Rosaceae family and is also used in traditional medicine.

Growing evidence has shown that this plant has various interesting physiological and pharmacological activities due to the presence of different bioactive natural compounds.

In addition, scientific evidence suggests that the toxicity of hawthorn is negligible. ❞

~ Dr. Nabavi et al.

Read in full: Polyphenolic Composition of Crataegus monogyna Jacq.: From Chemistry to Medical Applications

While “the toxicity of hawthorn is negligible” may be reasonably considered a baseline for recommending an edible plant, it’s still important as just that: a baseline. It’s good to know that berries are safe, after all!

More positively, about those antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties:

Polyphenols from hawthorn peels and fleshes differently mitigate dyslipidemia, inflammation and oxidative stress

This one was a mouse study, but it’s important as it about modulating liver injury after being fed a high fructose diet.

In other words: it a) helps undo the biggest cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, b) logically, likely guards against diabetes also (by the same mechanism)

Anti-Diabetes Potential

Curious about that latter point, we looked for studies, and found, for example:

• Hypoglycemic effect of hawthorn in type II diabetes mellitus rat model
• Molecular Mechanisms of Hawthorn Extracts in Multiple Organs Disorders in Underlying of Diabetes: A Review
• Modulation of GPC-4 and GPLD1 serum levels by improving glycemic indices in type 2 diabetes: Resistance training and hawthorn extract intervention

Noteworthily, those studies are from the past couple of years, which is probably why we’re not seeing many human trials for this yet—everything has to be done in order, and there’s a lengthy process between each.

We did find some human trials with hawthorn in diabetes patients, for example:

Hypotensive effects of hawthorn for patients with diabetes taking prescription drugs: a randomised controlled trial

…but as you see, that’s testing not its antidiabetic potential, so far demonstrated only in mice and rats (so far as we could find), but rather its blood pressure lowering effects, using diabetic patients as a sample.

Blood pressure benefits

Hawthorn has been studied specifically for its hypotensive effect, for example:

Promising hypotensive effect of hawthorn extract: a randomized double-blind pilot study of mild, essential hypertension

As an extra bonus, did you notice in the conclusion,

❝Furthermore, a trend towards a reduction in anxiety (p = 0.094) was also observed in those taking hawthorn compared with the other groups.

These findings warrant further study, particularly in view of the low dose of hawthorn extract used.❞

~ Dr. Ann Walker et al.

…it seems that not a lot more study has been done yet, but that is promising too!

Other blood metrics

So, it has antidiabetic and antihypertensive benefits, what of blood lipids?

Hawthorn Fruit Extract Elevates Expression of Nrf2/HO-1 and Improves Lipid Profiles

And as for arterial plaque?

Clinical study on treatment of carotid atherosclerosis with extraction of polygoni cuspidati rhizoma et radix and crataegi fructus: a randomized controlled trial

here it was tested alongside another herb, and performed well (also against placebo).

In summary…

Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) is…

• a potent berry containing many polyphenols with good antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects
• looking promising against diabetes, but research for this is still in early stages
• found to have other cardioprotective effects (antihypertensive, improves lipid profiles), too
• considered to have negligible toxicity

Where can I get it?

As ever, we don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

Enjoy!