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Author Topic: NMDA Receptor-Mediated Neuroprotective Effect of the Scutellaria baicalensis  (Read 4335 times)

Hummingbird

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Just found this article. Not many plants have this kind of effect. NDMA antagonists are used as a cure for many neural disorders, but have many side effects
and are very rare in nature, specially without affecting other receptors, for example Ibogaine has this effect, but other effects are unavoidable.
This sounds pretty big to me, and I was planning to germinate those for some time.  Seems easy to grow, and seed is cheap on ebay. And it has pretty flowers!  8)
Apparently the root is used, but I should research this in more detail!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4055394/
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Auxin

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Yeah, not a difficult plant to grow.
The roots could taste better, but hey- its medicine  ;)
The leaves also apparently have some limited pharmacognostic use, as well as being used as a tea. I never particularly liked baikal tea, I have a full pint jar in my kitchen thats about 6 years old now, to me it tastes like low quality boiled spinach. I suppose it could be used in tea mixes tho.
As a smoke the leaves dont stand up against several other Scutellarias. The extract enhanced flowers showed a bit of promise tho, usual mild Scutellaria sedation with a feel like it was right on the verge of having a psychedelic sparkle to it. The extract enhanced flowers could be used in certain compound smoke mixes. And the flowers are big and easy to harvest, so that helps.
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MRTree

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Skullcap , which is closely related , has nervine effects so the article makes sense , ,,,going to read up on it a bit more, very interesting, cool find hb!
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Mangrove

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Ummmmmm


I haven't much time to slather this post with too much science, buuuuut let's just say that NMDA receptor antagonism is a VERY broad term. Some drugs such as memantine may be of use in treating Dementias whereas others, such as Ketamine, may be effective anesthetics in medical settings. I'd rather not elaborate too much further upon this subject for fear of bending the rules, but let's just say that a drug having NMDA antagonistic properties is akin to having an automobile. That automobile may be a brand new top-of-the-line ferrari which runs on hydrogen fusion, or it may be some beat-up '46 chevy pickup truck with two million and something miles on its corroded frame. This is how broad NMDA antagonism can be; just because a drug has NMDA antagonistic properties doesn't indicate anything other than it has SOME NMDA antagonistic properties (for those who aren't familiar with LTP and LTD, i'd suggest you spend a few hours perusing the literature on those subjects in order to better understand what this multifaceted term may entail).
« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 08:35:26 AM by Mangrove »
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Mangrove

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Nmda antagonists have an infinitesimally broad range of mechanisms of action on the human body-mind, with no two having the same psychosomatic features. Neuroscience has only scratched the surface of the biochemistry of the CNS/PNS, and has little to some clue as to how NMDA antagonism works at all.

TL:DR: STAY SAFE
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Hummingbird

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Yes, didn't want to go much into details because it's not my field either, since I see some of us here like science, I'll share some more of what I found:
What I'm interested in is applications of plants to some psychiatric conditions, specially bipolar disorder, which is one of the toughest to cure.
Pills given to patients have many side effects which you may or may not want to tolerate, but I came to an idea that there must be a solution in plant world.
So, instead of eating a bunch of plants or cutting up mice, I did some research prior.

Since I'm not as scientific as you, I went by simple logic and lots of googling:  ;D

1. Seems like bipolars have low GABA levels:
"The distribution of pGABA in bipolar patients, whether manic or depressed, was similar to that in symptomatic unipolar depression, with 30% to 40% having pGABA levels lower than the control range. These data indicate that low pGABA is not specific to the depressed state, as it is also found in the manic phase of bipolar disorder. Low pGABA may represent a shared biologic correlate between bipolar and unipolar illness."
http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v9/n2/abs/npp199351a.html

2. Lithium, commonly used as a remedy for bipolar condition has its effects due to some kind of GABAergic activity, maybe you know what that is?
"These results suggest that one common mechanism of action of lithium and carbamazepine is mediated by GABAB receptors and that GABA is involved in the pathophysiology of affective disorders."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0014299989906870

3. S.baicalensis has GABA agonists? Interesting!
"Baicalein and Wogonin are both potent GABAA agonists, and can activate this receptor. This is thought to mediate some of the depressant and anxiolytic effects of scutellaria baicalensis"

Oh wait, it has GABA antagonists too? No way.
"Oroxylin A is a relatively effective GABAA antagonist at the benzodiazepine binding site and has been confirmed to be active following oral ingestion, its properties oppose that of baicalein and wogonin"
https://examine.com/supplements/scutellaria-baicalensis/

Well, I researched lithium, which is readily given to bipolar patients all over the world, and it's not as studied in this field of science; also has many negative side effects and requires extraction from limited resources. While this plant works, grows easily, and as you can see it IS known to science for some time. Maybe they just take too long to make it into a pill. And Im'ma just take the roots, boil it and drink the sh* out of it, see what happens 8)

Peace

« Last Edit: February 17, 2017, 03:02:44 PM by Hummingbird »
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Leopardgecko44

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Yes! Skullcap is my favorite sedative tea next to blue lotus, about two heaping teaspoons of good potency leaves and stems is all it takes and you will surely be sleeping. The herb I got online was incredibly potent! Similar to say... Diazepam? If I were to compare. Great alternative too.
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Hummingbird

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Thanks for sharing Gecko! I noticed similar effects with rosemary and lavander, only from fresh stuff though! Read a lot lately, many herbs could be useful, I'm pretty excited about it so if I find anything new I'll post it here  :P
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