🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Research led by Associate Researcher Zheng Gaoli from Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Medical Sciences, funded by the Youth Science and Technology Talent Fund of Zhejiang Provincial Health Department and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, completed a three-year study titled "Study on the Effect and Mechanism of Gegen Isoflavones in Preventing and Treating Osteoporosis." This research first proposed and confirmed that Gegen isoflavones can effectively treat osteoporosis.
Traditionally, treatment of osteoporosis focuses on tonifying the kidneys. Clinically, yang-tonifying and kidney-strengthening herbs are commonly used. Gegen is traditionally used as a pungent-cool herb to treat headache, neck stiffness, irritability, and thirst. There are no prior records of using Gegen for osteoporosis. From September 1998, Zheng Gaoli's team, based on foreign reports indicating certain isoflavones selectively bind to different estrogen receptor subtypes, theoretically speculated that Gegen isoflavones might prevent and treat primary osteoporosis. Experimental evidence demonstrated their regulatory effect on bone metabolism through skeletal density, elemental content, mechanical properties, and tissue structure. Furthermore, studies on Gegen isoflavones and Gegenin promoting proliferation and differentiation of rat osteoblasts revealed the cellular mechanism underlying their anti-osteoporotic action.
This achievement holds great significance for developing anti-osteoporosis drugs utilizing the high isoflavone content in Gegen.