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Nettle

2/2/02 Nettle - Healthnotes Historical or traditional use (may or may not be supported by scientific studies): Nettle has a long history of use. The tough fibers from the stem have been used to make cloth and cooked nettle leaves were eaten as vegetables. From ancient Greece to the present, nettle has been documented for its use in treating coughs, tuberculosis, and arthritis and in stimulating hair growth. Active constituents: There has been a great deal of controversy regarding the identity of nettle's active constituents. Currently it is thought that polysaccharides (complex sugars) and lectins (large protein-sugar molecules) are probably the active constituents. The leaf has been shown to be anti-inflammatory by preventing the body from making inflammatory chemicals known as prostaglandins.1 Nettle's root affects hormones and proteins that carry sex hormones (such as testosterone or estrogen) in the human body; this may explain why it helps benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).2 This has been confirmed using extracts of the root in double-blind studies
3/24/02 LEF Arthritis Protocol
2/2/02 Plant extracts from stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), an antirheumatic remedy, inhibit the proinflammatory transcription factor NF-kappaB. FEBS Lett 1999 Jan 8;442(1):89-94 PMID: 9923611 Activation of transcription factor NF-kappaB is elevated in several chronic inflammatory diseases and is responsible for the enhanced expression of many proinflammatory gene products. Extracts from leaves of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) are used as antiinflammatory remedies in rheumatoid arthritis. Standardized preparations of these extracts (IDS23) suppress cytokine production, but their mode of action remains unclear. Here we demonstrate that treatment of different cells with IDS23 potently inhibits NF-kappaB activation. An inhibitory effect was observed in response to several stimuli, suggesting that IDS23 suppressed a common NF-kappaB pathway. Inhibition of NF-kappaB activation by IDS23 was not mediated by a direct modification of DNA binding, but rather by preventing degradation of its inhibitory subunit IkappaB-alpha. Our results suggests that part of the antiinflammatory effect of Urtica extract may be ascribed to its inhibitory effect on NF-kappaB activation
2/2/02 [Anti-inflammatory effect of Urtica dioica folia extract in comparison to caffeic malic acid] Arzneimittelforschung 1996 Jan;46(1):52-6 PMID: 8821518 Urtica dioica extract is a traditionary used adjuvant therapeutic in rheumatoid arthritis. The antiphlogistic effects of the urtica dioica folia extract IDS 23 (Extractum Urticae dioicae foliorum) and the main phenolic ingredient caffeic malic acid were tested concerning the inhibitory potential on biosynthesis of arachidonic acid metabolites in vitro. Concerning the 5-lipoxygenase products IDS 23 showed a partial inhibitory effect. The isolated phenolic acid inhibited the synthesis of the leukotriene B4 in a concentration dependent manner The antiphlogistic effects observed in vitro may give an explanation for the pharmacological and clinical effects of IDS 23 in therapie of rheumatoid diseases.
2/2/02 Randomized controlled trial of nettle sting for treatment of base-of-thumb pain. J R Soc Med 2000 Jun;93(6):305-9 PMID: 10911825 There are numerous published references to use of nettle sting for arthritis pain but no randomized controlled trials have been reported. We conducted a randomized controlled double-blind crossover study in 27 patients with osteoarthritic pain at the base of the thumb or index finger. Patients applied stinging nettle leaf (Urtica dioica) daily for one week to the painful area. The effect of this treatment was compared with that of placebo, white deadnettle leaf (Lamium album), for one week after a five-week washout period. Observations of pain and disability were recorded for the twelve weeks of the study. After one week's treatment with nettle sting, score reductions on both visual analogue scale (pain) and health assessment questionnaire (disability) were significantly greater than with placebo (P = 0.026 and P = 0.0027).
3/24/02 [Cytokine secretion in whole blood of healthy subjects following oral administration of Urtica dioica L. plant extract] Arzneimittelforschung 1996 Sep;46(9):906-10 PMID: 8967906 Twenty healthy volunteers ingested for 21 days 2 capsules b.i.d. of an IDS 23/1 containing nettle leaf extract (Rheuma-Hek). After 7 and 21 days ingestion ex vivo a decrease of LPS stimulated TNF-alpha release of 14.6 and 24.0%, respectively, was observed. IL-1 beta was reduced for 19.2 and 39.3%. In vitro IDS 23/1 added to whole blood resulted in an exceeded inhibition of LPS stimulated TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta secretion which correlated with the duration of the drug ingestion. Using the highest tested IDS 23/1 concentration the inhibition reached 50.5 (day 0) to 79.5% (day 21) for TNF-alpha and 90.0 (day 0) to 99.2% (day 21) for IL-1 beta, respectively. IDS 23/1 induced a pronounced release of IL-6 in absence of LPS only in vitro. The detected IL-6 concentrations were comparable to those after LPS stimulation, additive effects could not be observed. The absence of detectable IL-6 concentrations in whole blood ex vivo after oral ingestion of the tested drug as well as the differences in the inhibition patterns for TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta ex vivo and ex vivo in vitro suggest that the extract contains different pharmacological effective compounds with varying bioavailabilities

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