Palms are members of a large botanical family that has so far little known medicinal plants, despite the large number of genera and species and their distribution on all continents, mainly in the intertropical zone.
The « dwarf » palm of the sands of Florida (or saw palmetto), SABAL SERRULATA = SERENOA REPENS, ARECACEAE, is rather short of « trunk », more or less creeping, the leaves in fan (palmatifides), are of dark green color, the petiole is long and garnished with small thorns very sharp (hence the English name: small palm cutting like a saw).
The fruit (drupe) is globose (1.5 to 3 cm) blue black at maturity, resembling an olive.
This tree is endemic to the Southeastern US and Mexico in sandy, sometimes dry, sometimes swampy areas where it can grow into a particularly impenetrable monospecific stand.
It is sometimes planted as a decorative palm and can withstand temperatures below 0 °Celsius for a few days.
The fruit is the medicinal part
SAW PALMETTO SERENOA REPENS SABAL SERRULATA PROSTATE BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTROPHY URINARY DISORDERS PROSTATITIS NOCTURNAL POLLAKIURIA
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES
THE FRUIT OF SAW PALMETTO SERENOA REPENS = SABAL SERRULATA
The fruit and the seed are rich in oil like most fruits and palm almonds (they are fatty acids with carbon chains rather short and saturated, 14 atoms of C and less: about 50% of lauric and myristic fatty acids). The fruit is edible but has an unpleasant taste.
The lipidosterol commercial extract contains a mixture of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkanes, alkenes), phytosterol, and anthranilic acid.
The pharmacologically active extracts are those obtained by extraction with ethanol and hexane.
SERENOA REPENS EXTRACT = SABAL SERRULATA = SAW PALMETTO
SAW PALMETTO FRUIT extracts are mainly studied in vitro.
- They appear to exert a peripheral antiandrogenic effect (by competitive inhibition of hormones or enzymes) without significant hormonal incidence at the general level, without interference with the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.
That is to say, they undoubtedly reduce the action of male hormones on tissues including the prostate gland and perhaps the hair follicles (alopecia) without changing the overall hormonal balance, so without feminization. - They also exercise anti-inflammatory and anti-oedematous activity with reduction of the permeability of the blood capillaries.
- Some studies suggest that they promote apoptosis (programmed cell death) of prostatic cells of the adenoma, thus decreasing their number, therefore the volume of the prostate.
All this helps to explain the positive results that are observed in their use in benign prostatic hypertrophy.
Effects of Saw palmetto extracts in humans with benign prostatic hypertrophy or prostate adenoma.
Epidemiological and clinical studies have sometimes contradictory results but they are difficult to achieve because the efficiency criteria are mainly functional.
In addition, it is morally questionable to perform placebo tests that deprive patients of treatment for several months.
Nevertheless, the experience of using these extracts of Florida palm tree shows that they stabilize the evolution of benign prostatic hypertrophy, decrease nocturnal pollakiuria, and inflammatory signs of prostatism.
They are accompanied by very few side effects, some digestive disorders at the beginning of treatment that decrease thereafter.
Florida palm extracts seem as effective to cure prostatic adenoma as a synthetic drug such as finasteride but without the side effects (vertigo and especially low libido and impotence).
USES
Florida palm extracts are recommended to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy (= prostatic adenoma) and urinary disorders associated with the increase of the protatic hypertophy.
- Standardized Saw palmetto Extracts are commonly found in pharmacy, drugstore or internet
- Homeopathic tincture of fresh fruits of Serenoa repens is more difficult to find :
- 100 drops in attack treatment for a few weeks (2 to 3) which can then be reduced to 20 drops per day in maintenance treatment,
- or 20 to 30 drops 3 times a day in the long term.
- It is interesting to associate the extracts of Serenoa repens, saw palmetto or dwarf palm tree of Florida with other vegetal extracts also active to cure the benign enlargement of the prostate:
Examples: - Saw palmetto and African plum bark .
- Saw palmetto, nettle root and squash seed .
These phytomedicines are generally well tolerated unlike some synthetic drugs and can control pollakiuria, dysuria and pelvic pain related to prostate adenoma.
There is no negative effect on libido, erection or ejaculation.
There is usually no clear decrease in the size of the prostate, but inflammation and urinary signs are reduced and the progression of the adenoma slowed down or even stopped.
.
ABSTRACT
TO LIMIT THE VOLUME OF PROSTATE AND TO TREAT THE ASSOCIATED URINARY DISORDERS
The saw palmetto of Florida (saw palmetto) (sabal serrulata or serenoa repens) grows spontaneously in the southeastern US and Mexico.
The kernel of its fruit is rich in oil and contains compounds that oppose the increase of prostatic adenoma. They have in addition an anti-inflammatory and disinfiltrant effect very useful in this kind of affection.
These extracts of Florida palm are combined with other plant extracts (nettle, African plum, squash) to reduce the size of the prostate and treat the associated urinary disorders.
Copyright 2019 : Dr Jean-Michel Hurtel
You are on www.phytomania.com
French site dedicated to medicinal plants and essential oils
PHYTOTHERAPY, AROMATHERAPY, MEDICINAL PLANTS, ESSENTIAL OILS