(Anti)Inflammatory Properties of Elderberry

[RoseHip]

Hello Scientists.

I am new to the forum. Although I come from somewhat of a scientific background in the past, I am not educated in biochemistry. At this point I would call myself a scientific researcher and independent student, not necessarily by choice, but out of necessity. Nevertheless, I've found this area profoundly interesting.

 

Hoping your vast knowledge can help me find some answers, as I am desperate to understand a bit about immune responses and how they work. So onto my question:

 

In my search for natural anti-inflammatory herbs I found Elderberry as potentially being one. Unfortunately, digging in deeper I came across what _may_ be contradictory information and this is why I'm here, to gain some clarity.

 

Elderberry (as an example), is touted to REDUCE inflammation in the body, sometimes will help with allergies.

 

When searching further I came across the following "study". It states, "Sambucol Elderberry Extract and its formulations activate the healthy immune system by increasing inflammatory cytokine production".

 

So what could one conclude from this... so confused. If this is an "anti inflammatory" herb then why is it that it increases the inflammatory cytokine production?

 

Could someone please shed some light for me how this works... would I be creating more inflammation in the body by taking this herb if my goal is to reduce it?

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518

 

Any info will help, thank you.

 

 

[RoseHip]

Might be that I should have included this in the Immunology section rather than here.. Moderator please take note and move as you see fit? TY

[JorgeLobo]

I'd not get too excited about the marerial base on this overly optimistic pubication. Commerical preparations reportedly provoking a change using isolated cells may or may not translate to a clinically signficant effect on the body. Worse (and this should have been addressed by the editor), excessive focus on alleged antivial efficacy not addressed and largely irrelevant to the study is inappropriate.

[RoseHip]

Is it possible for a substance to increase inflammatory cytokine production, at the same time reduce inflammation..? Is my question. Not-a-chemist-type here trying to catch up with you all.

 

Do these "inflammatory cytokines" reduce inflammation, or make more inflammation .. ?

 

Based on what was mentioned there would this herb lower inflammation or stimmulate an immune response? or am I not comparing apples to oranges..?

 

(Not a biochemist..)

 

p.s. JorgeLobo I didn't find the study exciting either, is one supposed to? They did say something about reducing flu by 3 days in a hot body

[JorgeLobo]

Think the authors hoped it would be exciting - suggesting "immunoprotective or immunostimulative" efficacy in cancer and AIDs therapy for a commercial product.

 

Flu was not part of this publication. They cited a 20-year old paper in a journal of alternative medicine that reported palliative effects - resolution of some symptoms sooner with the stuff and another in vitro study without demonstrated relevance. Also cited was a subjective study of similar vintage reported in a zoo newsletter.

Edited May 22, 2015 by JorgeLobo

[RoseHip]

My reason for linking to the abstract of this paper is independent from your arguments above.

 

I'd like to discuss in more detail, immune stimlation and inflammation. How do the two correlate between each other.

[JorgeLobo]

To your central point, I think you're seeing the that the "antiinflammatory" hype matches poorly with the science.

[MonDie]

Not that it couldn't have either effect under different circumstances. Look for citations wherever you read that it was anti-inflammatory.

This one looks interesting.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12455180

[GPS]

Basicaly,the immune system is activated by an irritant (ie, bacteria) causing macrophages (cells that eat other cells) to release cytokines, which are small proteins that signal other cells in the body. These cytokines can cause the inflammatory response (hence the term, "inflammatory cytokines"). This causes the activation of the innate and the addaptive immune system... The introduction and the conclusion of the paper are not sound. Here they used human monocytes that secrete the cytokines. The article is also old, and most likely the products have changed the concentration so good luck calculating the percentage of extract needed. The extracts should have been pure and calculated ie. in mg. Also, if you are considering supplements research the pros and cons and find out side effects and interactions-just a cautionary side note because I have seen things that I don't care for which I don't care to discuss.

[Xalatan]

The abstract states, "Production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8) was significantly increased, mostly by the Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract (2-45 fold), as compared to LPS, a known monocyte activator (3.6-10.7 fold). The most striking increase was noted in TNF-alpha production (44.9 fold)".

 

Based on this result, it may be hard to argue there is an anti-inflammatory effect for Elderberry. IL1, IL6 and TNFa are the classic inflammatory cytokines, and IL-8 is a chemokine. TNFa levels stimulated by Elderberry were folds higher than that induced by LPS positive control. To show an anti-inflammatory response, I would expect the levels of IL-10, TGF-b to increase, rather than this way around.

 

​Perhaps more studies need to be done.