Anti-gout active ingredients from natural plant medicines and their related mechanisms.
Zhao L, Zhu Y, Zhong J, Chen S, Wang H
Medicinal Plants
Herbs like ginseng that you might grow or brew as tea contain compounds scientists are now seriously investigating as multi-target drugs for one of humanity's oldest recorded joint diseases.
Gout is a painful joint condition caused by too much uric acid in the body, and people have used plants to treat it for thousands of years. Scientists combed through nearly three decades of research and found hundreds of plant-based chemicals — from flavonoids in flowers to terpenoids in roots — that fight gout through multiple pathways at once. Standout compounds like ginsenosides (from ginseng) show strong potential as future medicines because they hit several disease targets simultaneously rather than just one.
Key Findings
Analysis of 282 studies identified 164 plant extracts and 148 bioactive compounds with anti-gout activity, spanning chemical classes including 39 terpenoids, 38 flavonoids, and 25 phenols.
These natural compounds work through seven distinct mechanisms including lowering uric acid, reducing inflammation, blocking neutrophil migration, suppressing pyroptosis, and promoting autophagy.
Terpenoids, polyphenols, and flavonoids are the most potent anti-gout compound classes, with ginsenosides and anemoside B4 highlighted as high-druggability multi-target candidates.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers reviewed 31 years of studies and catalogued 164 plant extracts and 148 specific compounds from herbal medicines that can treat gout, mapping out seven distinct biological pathways through which these natural ingredients reduce pain and inflammation.
Abstract Preview
The earliest known treatise on "gout" is found in Hippocratic Corpus, which was regarded as the "disease of kings" in early Europe. In ancient China, gout was documented in medicine text "Suwen", w...
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Ginseng is the root of plants in the genus Panax, such as South China ginseng (P. notoginseng), Korean ginseng (P. ginseng), and American ginseng (P. quinquefolius), characterized by the presence of ginsenosides and gintonin.