A Southeast Asian fever vine works almost as well as acetaminophen in rats
Kongkiatpaiboon S, Yimsoo T, Kotsaouppara N, Tayana N, Schinnerl J
Medicinal Plants
A woody vine that traditional healers in Thailand and the Malay Peninsula have brewed for centuries to break fevers now has lab data backing that use, giving ethnobotanists a concrete lead for tracing which compounds in folk medicine actually work.
Researchers tested a stem extract from a climbing plant called Phanera strychnifolia, which healers in Southeast Asia have long used to treat fevers. In rats given baker's yeast to trigger a fever, the extract brought temperatures down in a dose-dependent way, with the highest dose nearly matching the effect of acetaminophen. Blood chemistry analysis showed the extract partially reversed the widespread chemical chaos that fever causes in the body, especially in how the body handles energy and fats.
Key Findings
P. strychnifolia stem extract at 500 mg/kg produced antipyretic effects approaching paracetamol without inducing hypothermia in yeast-fevered rats.
The extract contains 9.0% w/w astilbin, a flavonoid likely responsible for part of its fever-reducing activity.
Plasma metabolomics (LC-MS/MS) showed fever caused system-wide reprogramming of energy metabolism, lipid signaling, amino acid pathways, and stress responses, with extract treatment partially reversing these shifts.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A stem extract from Phanera strychnifolia, a medicinal vine from Southeast Asia, significantly reduced fever in rats at doses comparable to acetaminophen, without causing dangerous drops in body temperature. Metabolomics revealed that the extract partially reversed the broad disruption to energy, lipid, and amino acid pathways that fever triggers.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Antipyretic activity of Phanera strychnifolia stem extract in yeast-induced febrile rats: a plasma metabolomics study.
Phanera strychnifolia is a medicinal plant species distributed in Thailand and theMalay Peninsula. Its stem has been traditionally used for detoxification and reducing fever. This study aimed to ev...
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Phanera is a genus of flowering plants in the legume subfamily Cercidoideae and the tribe Bauhinieae. This genus differs from Bauhinia in being vines or lianas, generally with tendrils and a lobed rather than spathaceous calyx, and from Schnella in having only three fertile stamens rather than te...