Peony Extract & Healthy Brain Function

The peony flower grows wild in China, where it is called Shao Yao for “most beautiful,” and comes in a variety of colors ranging from light pink to dark maroon. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant throughout the world, and now it is being extensively studied for its memory protection properties.

While other herbs have been found to improve memory in animals with age-related and chemically induced memory loss, peony has a special distinction among these herbs. In much of the research on herbal memory-enhancing products the herbal extract must be given by injection because oral intake is much less effective, or even ineffective.

Low dosage makes peony extract different from other memory herbs

• Stimulates the hippocampus—which is in the brain’s temporal lobe, and is responsible for storing new information—to enhance learning and memory. This is significant because in humans Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia affect the hippocampus first, before other parts of the brain.1
• Ameliorates spatial cognitive impairment in animals given an amnesia-producing drug.2,3,4
• Exerts a protective effect on brain neurons in animals during epileptic seizures.5
• Improves the ability to learn in animals with age-related learning deficits. The scientists concluded that peony has the therapeutic potential to treat senile dementia and aging-induced cognitive dysfunction.6

Conclusion

References

1. Tabata K, Matsumoto K, Murakami Y, Watanabe H. Ameliorative effects of paeoniflorin, a major constituent of peony root, on adenosine A1 receptor-mediated impairment of passive avoidance performance and long-term potentiation in the hippocampus. Biol Pharm Bull. 2001 May;24(5):496-500.
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2. Tabata K, Matsumoto K, Watanabe H. Paeoniflorin, a major constituent of peony root, reverses muscarinic M1-receptor antagonist-induced suppression of long-term potentiation in the rat hippocampal slice. Jpn J Pharmacol. 2000 May;83(1):25-30.
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3. Ohta H, Matsumoto K, Watanabe H, Shimizu M. Involvement of beta-adrenergic systems in the antagonizing effect of paeoniflorin on the scopolamine-induced deficit in radial maze performance in rats. Jpn J Pharmacol. 1993 Aug;62(4):345-9.
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4. Ohta H, Ni JW, Matsumoto K, Watanabe H, Shimizu M. Peony and its major constituent, paeoniflorin, improve radial maze performance impaired by scopolamine in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1993 Jul;45(3):719-23.
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5. Tsuda T, Sugaya A, Ohguchi H, Kishida N, Sugaya E. Protective effects of peony root extract and its components on neuron damage in the hippocampus induced by the cobalt focus epilepsy model. Exp Neurol. 1997 Aug;146(2):518-25.
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6. Ohta H, Matsumoto K, Shimizu M, Watanabe H. Paeoniflorin attenuates learning impairment of aged rats in operant brightness discrimination task. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1994 Sep;49(1):213-7.
   Abstract