Chang Shan Herb Properties Are Being Studied

Recently, the popularity of the Traditional Chinese medicine has been increasing causing a great interest to numerous ancient Chinese herbal remedies and natural treatments for almost all known treatable health conditions. These natural remedies have been used for centuries and known since the times of ancient Chinese medical traditions. Therefore, those old recipes and natural treatments are very highly regarded by all natural medicine proponents around the world. Thanks to the opportunities offered us by the world wide web, the best Chinese herbal remedies are now available to all those in need, and it is possible to purchase online a great deal of specific Chinese herbs or medicinal plants, ancient natural remedies, and natural health care products based on traditional Chinese natural remedies. Certainly, the list of such plants and herbs is huge, and it goes far beyond ginseng root, ginger, or ginkgo biloba which use to be more or less known before in Europe and the United States.

A great number of Chinese herbal remedies have recently been thoroughly studied by the scientists and health care experts from around the world. So was Chang Shan, a known Chinese medicinal herb with over 2,000 years of history of being used to treat various infectious and autoimmune diseases. In particular, for many years it was one of the best and the most effective cures for malaria epidemics in the history of ancient China. Though it primarily grows around the areas of Tibet mountains and Nepal, the herb Chang Shan is known in the West as blue evergreen hydrangea and has a scientific name Dichroa febrifuga Lour. Since the times of the Han dynasty (around the 2nd century BC and further) ancient Chinese naturopaths and health care specialists used to recommend applying special extract from Chang Shan root in order to treat fever, malaria, and other quite common diseases of those epochs.

The studies of modern times helped to figure out that most of the known therapeutic powers of Chang shan should be attributed to high content of febrifuginone, the compound that blocks production of faulty immune cells (called transfer RNA) which attack healthy body cells and cause autoimmune diseases. Those are the conclusions of the scientific group at the Scripps Research Institute in California, published the last year in the journal Nature. ‘Our new results solved a mystery that has puzzled people about the mechanism that has been used to treat fever from a malaria infection going back probably 2000 years or more,’ Paul Schimmel, the study leader, commented on the findings of his fellow-scientists. According to Schimmer, Chang Shan can be one of those Chinese herbal remedies which can give pharmacologists amazing new ideas about creating new treatments for the diseases like malaria and others.

Nowadays, more findings about Chang shan and its therapeutic properties were published. A group of scientists at Harvard School of Dental Medicine studied the effects of Chang Shan root extract on our skin health and other aspects of our health. The researchers came to the conclusion that active ingredient in the extract known as halifuginone can play a role in slowing down scar formation, but being still able to assist in wound healing and preventing various skin imperfections. These interesting conclusions were published by the journal Live Science upon the acceptance of the National Science Foundation. Moreover, according to the publication, there are plenty of other conditions which can be treated by using this one of the most powerful and unique Chinese herbal remedies.

The researchers are convinced that the discovered properties of Chang shan can assist greatly in treating multiple sclerosis and findings a great effective treatment approach to combating this very serious health condition. Moreover, there is a great probability that the researches processes on cellular levels can be used to slow down growth and development of cancer cells for some types of cancer, which can also result in finding some breakthrough cancer treatments. Harvard School specialists are sure that the findings should be given great attention since they can reveal new insights and open new horizons for modern medicine development. Besides, there is an opinion that studying other traditional Chinese herbal remedies can also open new directions and lead to new very important discoveries.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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