The Power of Thor in Plant Form?

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Well not exactly. You won't see the plant causing earthquakes, shooting lighting or forming due to thunder, but you will see it do some amazing things within your body and too things that would harm it. I had recently seen the movie Thor, and as I watched him smash through some frost giants, it got me thinking about a paper I wrote. During my first semester at CCNM I wrote a short assignment on a herb of my choosing and set upon one which share a name in common with Thor; Thunder God...Vine! It's a pretty neat little plant, but keep in mind many of the studies show great promise, but much more is needed before definitive results can be claimed. Oh and sorry in advance for the chemical names and medical terms; it was a paper for school after all.

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Thunder God Vine (Tripterygium Wilfordii), is a plant known by many names: Huang-T'eng Ken, Lei Gong Teng, Lei-Kung T'eng, Taso-Ho-Hua, Threewingnut, Tonnerre de la Vigne de Dieu, Tripterigium Wilfordii, Yellow Vine¹. Thunder god vine has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as an immunosuppressent, anti-inflammatory, and anti-proliferative¹.

The major therapeutic action often associated with Thunder God Vine and its phytochemicals is the reduction of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the symptoms associated with it⁴. There have been several studies conducted to assess the plants ability to accomplish this lofty goal. For instance, during a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, which assessed an extract of thunder god vine, significant therapeutic benefits were found when compared to placebo⁴. The study showed that when taken orally improvements in physical function, pain and inflammation of joints were found to occur⁴. Another study looked at the effectiveness of thunder god vine when applied topically in tincture form³. Results showed that when applied over affected joints, stiffness, tenderness and swelling associated with RA seemed to decrease³.

Though RA can be seen as the major therapeutic action associated with thunder god vine there are several others. For instance, preliminary studies have shown that when taken orally, thunder god vine may be effective as a male contraceptive in which sperm function returns to normal after discontinuation¹¹. Additionally, preliminary clinical evidence suggests that thunder god vine may be effective in the treatment of nephrotic syndrome in children and for nephritis associated with systemic lupus erthematosus ^5,6.

Thunder god vine has also been used orally to treat excessive menstrual periods, multiple sclerosis, abscesses, boils, fever, inflammation, HIV/AIDS, psoriasis, and Behcet's disease¹.

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The major active compounds found within the plant are triterpenoids (image right) ¹. Triterpenoids, made up of 6 isoprene units (30C), are terpenoid derivatives of triterpene molecules. To date at least 21 types of triterpenoids have been identified^1,2. These include tripchlorolide, triptolidenol, triptolide, tripdiolde and 16-hydroxytriptolide¹. Another plant that contains triterpenoids is Psidium Guajava. Found within its leaves are two triterpenoids, guavanoic acid and guavacumaric acid ¹⁴.  It can be noted that this plant, like thunder god vine, has immunosuppressive effects¹⁴.

These various triterpenoids result in a wide variety of mechanisms of action. For instance, when looking for a potential mechanism of action for thunder god vines anti-inflammatory power we can look at a study in which researchers assessed the anti-inflammatory activity of several Chinese medicinal vine plants. Upon completion of the study thunder god vine was shown to be the most potent in its ability to inhibit cyclooxygenase 1 (COX-1), 2 (COX-2) and 5-lipoygenase (5-LO) activity ⁹.

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There are several studies’ that show possible mechanisms of action for thunder god vines immunosuppressive power. The triptolide constituent of Thunder god vine is often attributed to the immunosuppressive effects of the vine (image left)¹. In an early study an alcohol extract of the plant known as T2, containing triptolide, was found to inhibit antigen and mitogen stimulated T-cell and B-cell proliferation, in addition to the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and B-cell immunoglobulin production⁸. An additional study was created to observe the inhibitory effect of anti-rheumatic herb formulas, including the T2 alcohol extract of thunder god vine⁷. Results showed that the T2 alcohol extract was able to inhibit lymphocyte activation and T-cell expression of IL-2 at very low concentrations⁷. This same study showed that the thunder god vine was also able to inhibit the release of prostaglandin 2 from mononuclear leukocytes. Finally, a study, looking at the effects of anti-rheumatic herbal medicines on cellular adhesion molecules, found that an extract of thunder god vine was able to inhibit the activity of cellular adhesion molecules (integrins and selectins) of leukocytes and endothelial cells¹³.

When looking towards a possible mechanism of action for thunder god vine’s potential male anti-fertility effects you can look at several studies¹.  For instance, during a study to assess the potential of triptolide, extracted from thunder god vine, as a potential male contraceptive, results showed a significant decrease and inhibition of sperm mobility maturation and transformation¹⁰.

The most interesting mechanism of action was found during two studies that assessed the effect of neotripterifordin, tripterifordin, and salaspermic acid extracted from thunder god vine and their ability to inhibit HIV replication. In one study tripterifordin showed anti-HIV replication in H9 lymphocyte cells while, in another study, salaspermic acid acted as an inhibitor of HIV reverse transcriptase and HIV replication in H9 lymphocyte cells ^12,13.  

1 THUNDER GOD VINE. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. 12 Nov 2010. <http://naturaldatabase.therapeuticresearch.com.ezproxy.ccnm.edu/nd/Search.aspx?cs=&s=ND&pt=100&id=824&ds=>

2 Duan H, Takaishi Y, Momota H, et al. Triterpenoids from Tripterygium wilfordii. Phytochemistry 2000;53:805-10.

3 Cibere J, Deng Z, Lin Y, Ou R, He Y, Wang Z, Thorne A, Lehman AJ, Tsang IK, Esdaile JM. A randomized double blind, placebo controlled trial of topical Tripterygium wilfordii in rheumatoid arthritis: reanalysis using logistic regression analysis. J Rheumatol. 2003 Mar;30(3):465-7.

4 Tao X, Younger J, Fan FZ, Wang B, Lipsky PE. Benefit of an extract of Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Arthritis Rheum. 2002 Jul;46(7):1735-43.

5 Kao NL, Richmond GW, Moy JN. Resolution of severe lupus nephritis associated with Tripterygium wilfordii hook F ingestion. Arthritis Rheum 1993;36:1751-2

6 Jiang X. Clinical observations on the use of the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook for the treatment of nephrotic syndrome. Pediatr Nephrol 1994;8:343-4.

7 Chou CT, Chang SC. The inhibitory effect of common traditional anti-rheumatic herb formulas on prostaglandin E and interleukin 2 in vitro: a comparative study with Tripterygium wilfordii. J Ethnopharmacol 1998;62:167-71.

8 Kao X, Davis LS, Lipsky PE. Effect of an extract of the Chinese herbal remedy Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F on human immune responsiveness. Arthritis Rheum. 1991 Oct;34(10):1274-81.

9 Li RW, David Lin G, Myers SP, Leach DN. Anti-inflammatory activity of Chinese medicinal vine plants. J Ethnopharmacol. 2003 Mar;85(1):61-7.

10 Lue Y, Sinha Hikim AP, Wang C, Leung A, Baravarian S, Reutrakul V, Sangsawan R, Chaichana S, Swerdloff RS.10 Triptolide: a potential male contraceptive. J Androl. 1998 Jul-Aug;19(4):479-86.

11 Qian SZ, Hu YZ, Wang SM, et al. Effects of Tripterygium hypoglaucum (Levl.) Hutch on male fertility. Adv Contracept 1988;4:307-10.

12 Chen K, Shi QA, Fujioka T, et al. Anti-AIDS agents, 4. Tripterifordin, a novel anti-HIV principle from Tripterygium wilfordii: isolation and structural elucidation. J Nat Prod 1992;55:88-92.

13 Chang DM, Kuo SY, Lai JH, Chang ML. Effects of anti-rheumatic herbal medicines on cellular adhesion molecules. Ann Rheum Dis 1999;58:366-71.

14. Sabira Begum, Syed Imran Hassan, Bina S. Siddiqui, Farhana Shaheen, M. Nabeel Ghayur and Anwar H. Gilani. Triterpenoids from the leaves of Psidium guajava. Phytochemistry October 2002;61(4):399-403