August 5, 2014

African Plant Reveals Possible Treatment for Aging Brain

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies issued the following news release: For hundreds of years, healers in Sao Tome e Principe–an island off the western coast of Africa–have prescribed cata-manginga leaves and bark to their patients. These pickings from the Voacanga africana tree are said to decrease inflammation and ease the symptoms of mental disorders. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered that the power of the plant isn’t just folklore: a compound isolated from Voacanga africana protects cells from altered molecular pathways linked to Alzheimer’s disease (http://www.salk.edu/ra/alzheimers_and_aging.html), Parkinson’s disease and the neurodegeneration that often follows a stroke. “What this provides us with […]