Longevity Spinach: Uses, Side Effects, and Interactions

One of the plants that is often used as a medicinal plant is the longevity spinach.

What are the uses of the leaves with the scientific name Gynura procumbens?

The content of the longevity spinach

The benefits of longevity spinach leaves certainly come from their content. For that, know the following contents.

• Flavonoids,
• Saponins,
• Tannins,
• Terpenoids,
• Sterol glycosides,
• Kaempferol,
• Quercetin,
• Kaempferol 3–O-beta-D–glucoside
• Kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside,
• Routine,
• Chlorogenic acid
• Alkaloids, and
• Astragalin.

Various benefits of longevity spinach for health

The use of longevity spinach has the potential to reduce the following conditions.

1. Cancer

This leaf has long been believed to be a treatment for breast cancer, leukemia, and uterine cancer.

Citing a review published by Frontiers in Pharmacology (2016), an ethanol extract of longevity spinach in cancer cells works in the following ways.

• Inhibits cancer cell cycle.
• Inhibits the formation of cancer cells.
• Reduces the growth of blood vessels leading to cancer.

These various ways of working can be obtained thanks to the content of flavonoids.

However, various studies still use cells in the laboratory, mice, and even chicken eggs.

Meanwhile, studies conducted on humans to date do not use longevity spinach as a single herbal medicine, but in combination with other cancer drugs.

However, not all cancer drugs can provide a good interaction for cancer, there are actually the opposite.

2. Herpes

One study published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2013) examined that god leaf ethanol extract smeared onto herpes has the potential to be deadly and inhibit the herpes simplex virus HSV-1 and HSV-2.

Furthermore, the longevity spinach contains caffeoylquinic, phytosteryl glucoside, and glycoglycerolipids.

This content can prevent herpes virus infection in patients with recurrent herpes simplex labialis.

Although it has been tested on humans, this study still has shortcomings.

There were some patients who did not complete the study series. So, the level of effectiveness (efficacy) of clinical trials was reduced.

3. Hypertension

In addition to eradicating the herpes virus, longevity spinach has the potential to lower blood pressure. This potential has also been investigated by published studies Clinics (2011).

There are two possible ways of working longevity spinach to control hypertension.

First, it inhibits an enzyme that narrows blood vessels.

In addition, this leaf helps lower blood pressure by blocking calcium from entering the blood vessels.

Therefore, blood vessels dilate and blood pressure stabilizes again.

Again, the effectiveness of the leaf that is claimed to be hypertension natural remedy This still requires further research. The reason is, this study has only tested mice, not humans.

Moreover, diet for hypertension should also be applied every day so that blood pressure remains stable.

Controlled blood pressure can reduce the risk of various heart diseases, such as heart failure to stroke.

You need to know, this leaf not one of stroke treatment or heart failure.

4. Diabetes

Longevity spinach is much sought after for the treatment of various health ailments such as diabetes.

According to the results of a study published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine (2013), phenolic extracts and flavonoids are behind these potential benefits.

Apart from working as a antioxidant, this study suspects that the way this longevity spinach extract works is similar to the diabetes drug, metformin.

In this case, the longevity spinach extract has the potential to change cell energy metabolism by inhibiting the liver from releasing glucose into the blood.

Again, this study used an ethanol extract that was tested on mice, not humans. This extract is certainly different from boiling ordinary longevity spinach.

5. Wound

Who would have thought that applying the extract of longevity spinach has the potential to accelerate wound healing?

Yes, a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Plants Research (2011) found that flavonoids in longevity spinach can reduce inflammation, increase collagen levels as well as blood circulation to the wound area.

In addition, this compound also protects the wound from exposure to free radicals that make the wound worse.

The performance of this leaf also makes scars appear more disguised.

The antimicrobial properties of the flavonoids also speed up the healing process by helping the regeneration of new skin cells to close the wound.

This study also used mice as a test model. So, you should not use this leaf as the only wound healer.

6. Malaria

The rise of increasing antiparasitic drug resistance has made the potential of plants more explored, including the longevity spinach for malaria.

Research published in Sains Malaysiana (2012) suspects that the longevity spinach extract helps suppress Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite carried by mosquitoes that cause malaria.

Again, it is the flavonoid content that has this potential.

Even so, this study also only tested on mice, so the direct effect on humans needs to be investigated further.

7. Fertility problems

Longevity spinach also has the potential to increase spe**rm count, improve the quality of spe**rm movement towards the egg, and reduce spe**rm cell death.

In addition, there is the potential to increase levels of lactate dehydrogenase, which plays an important role in spe**rm production.

As antioxidants, flavonoid compounds help neutralize oxidative stress caused by exposure to free radicals.

Oxidative stress is known to decrease spe**rm quality and increase the risk of infertility.

Longevity spinach side effects

Although there are various potential benefits of longevity spinach, this plant can trigger side effects.

These side effects usually appear when you consume them in large quantities.

The dangers of herbal medicine, longevity spinach can appear when you smear or consume it. Some of the side effects that appear include:

• allergic reaction,
• dermatitis,
• irritation, and
• Itchy skin.

If you do not process it properly, the dirt may still stick to the leaves and cause digestive disorders, such as stomach ache after drinking herbal medicine.

How to eat longevity spinach

You can take herbs and herbal medicines as alternative medicine complementary to chemical drugs (both prescription and nonprescription).

You can consume the longevity spinach in the form of boiled water.

In addition, you can also take it in the form of supplements. Make sure the selected product is registered with the FDA.

Longevity spinach is claimed to have potential benefits to reduce the risk of disease.

However, the various studies are generally still limited and less robust.

The findings above are still preliminary guesses because they were made only based on testing samples of cells, organ tissues, or on experimental mice in the laboratory.

Do not rely on the consumption of herbal medicines as the first and only treatment option.

Always consult a doctor before taking longevity spinach, there may be drug interactions that reduce the effectiveness of the leaves or the drugs consumed.

Summary

• The content of longevity spinach that have potential benefits are flavonoids.
• Most of the benefits are obtained by consuming boiled water from the leaves.
• Although very well known as an anticancer, the results of various studies are still inconsistent.