Hogweed is a giant herbaceous plant of the carrot family Apiaceae. It is a monocarpic perennial plant, and is known also by several other names such as golpar cow parsley, cow parsnip, or hogsbane. The plant can grow up to 14 feet, the stem is usually hollow, and the leaves can grow to 5 feet. Hogweed possesses several benefits due to its numerous phytochemicals.
What are hogweeds used for?
Giant hogweed are used for several purposes such as spices, flavoring, carminative, antiseptic, digestive, analgesic, anticonvulsant, flatulence, stomachs, epilepsy, and as a pain killer.
Health benefits of hogweed
hogweed is rich in secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, phenols, triterpenes and several others which confer on the plant the several health benefits for which it is known.
hogweed is beneficial for treating epilepsy
Epilepsy is an abnormal neuronal condition; a brain abnormal condition that is caused by unprovoked, repeating seizures. A seizure however is caused by abnormal electrical activity of the neurons. One of the contributors of convulsion and epilepsy is GABAergic inhibitors. When GABAergic inhibitors suppress GABAergic, the concentration of GABA becomes extremely high, thereby altering the normal neuro-electricity and excitations. This leads to convulsion in children and adults, and is also the cause of epilepsy.
In traditional medicine however, the fruit extracts hogweed are being used to treat convulsion and epilepsy. These claims have also been verified by several studies. This anticonvulsant property of hogweed is due to the presence of certain alkaloids, triterpenes, flavonoids and terpenoids that exert muscle relaxation on the body.
Hog weed may be combined with Ficus platyphylla, and sweet violet leaves for a synergistic improvement in the treatment of epilepsy of to stop convulsion in children, and seizures in adults.
Hogweed is beneficial for breast cancer treatment
With the rising cases of cancer, and the numerous side effects of chemotherapy, many people have started looking at the possibility treating cancer with herbal remedies. Some herbal plants have exhibited strong anticancer activities, making herbal remedy the new target for cancer treatment. One of such herbal remedies is hogweed. It is used in breast cancer and fibroblast treatment, where it exhibited strong anticancer activity through the inhibition of live fibroblast cells and MCF7, which is more pronounced in living cells of MCF7.
A combination of blue oyster mushroom or king oyster mushroom in your daily dietary supplements, may also synergistically improve your healing process, and aid chemotherapy or herbal remedies.
Hogweed is beneficial for lowering cholesterol level
Hogweed is a strong hypolipidemic herbal plant. This hypolipidemic activity of hogweed is of great benefits to your heart health and functions. Whenever there is elevated lipid profile level in your body, you are exposed to the risk of atherosclerosis and hypertension and myocardial infarction. The reason is simple: with high lipid profile comes the high low density lipoprotein (LDL) in your blood and the higher the risk of atherosclerosis due to the deposition of LDL on the arterial walls of your blood vessels, thereby blocking the normal blood flow, and increasing the blood pressure, and increasing your chances of a cardiac arrest.
The good news is that both the essential oil and hydroalcoholic extract of hogweed possess strong hypolipidemic and anti-atherosclerotic potential. Both the essential oil and extract significantly increased the high density lipoprotein cholesterol, otherwise known as the good cholesterol, and strongly reduces LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglyceride.
These hypolipidemic activities may be, according to studies, due to the reduction of intestinal absorption of cholesterol, and/or inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase. Another benefit of hogweed with regard to atherosclerosis is its strong antioxidant potential, which suppresses the oxidation of LDL, and thus reducing the risk of fatty streak and atherosclerotic plaque formation.
Hogweed is beneficial for diabetes management
In traditional medicines, hogweed is used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. This is because of its strong antidiabetic potentials. According to some studies, the hydroalcoholic extract of the plant possess strong hypoglycemic activities against blood sugar level. It can significantly decrease the blood glucose levels with activity higher than that of glibenclamide.
The plant extracts also strongly lowered the lipid profile of diabetic rats, improve insulin secretion, and restored insulin sensitivity. Hogweed also repaired beta-cell functions, and increases the beta-cell mass. This makes hogweed beneficial for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus.
This antidiabetic potential may be due to the rich flavonoids and coumarins present in Heracleum persicum, and their antioxidative potential.
To use hogweed as a home remedy for diabetes treatment, soak the fruits, leaves, and stem of the plant in an aqueous ethanolic solution and allow to sit for 24hrs. Take a small glass of the decoction before breakfast and after dinner. You may want to add bitter leaves, perilla leaves, and jute leaves to your decoction, for more effectiveness and synergy.
Hogweed is useful for treating microbial infections
The leaves and flowers of hogweed has potential antibacterial and fungicidal properties against some disease pathogens such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Klebsiella oxytoca and Escherichia coli and two fungus including; Aspergillus nigger, and Candida albicans. Thus, the plant leaves and flowers may be effective for treating toilet infections, urinary and respiratory tract infections.
Benefits of hogweed in immune responses
One other benefits of hogweed is in immunoregulation. It contains flavonoids and furanocoumarins that probably could stimulate both cell- and antibody-mediated immune responses. Besides, golpar has a substantial immunostimulatory effect on beta-lymphocytes and macrophages that played important role in antibody synthesis.
According to Changxing and colleagues, extract at a supplementation level of 1-2.5 ml/l in drinking water showed a remarkable increase in the total immunoglobulins (Ig) (70%), immunoglobulin G (IgG) (100%) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) (94%) in a study conducted on poultry.
Hogweed protects your liver and kidney
The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components of hogweed is beneficial for the protection of your liver and kidney from toxic substances. This makes hogweed an important herbal remedy, especially when you consider the increasing number of kidney and liver failures and their attendant mortality rates. Both the leaves and flowers of hogweed can be useful for this treatment.
References
Majidi, Z., Sadati Lamardi, S. N., Mohajjel-Nayebi, A., Vatankhah, A. M., Asnaashari, S., & Zakeri-Milani, P. (2020). Effects of Heracleum persicum Hydroalcoholic Extract on Insulin, Serum Anti-Oxidant Enzymes, Glucose, and Lipid Profiles in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats. Iranian journal of medical sciences, 45(3), 199–206.
Kousha and M. Bayat, 2012. Bactericidal and Fungicidal Activity of Methanolic Extracts of Heracleum persicum Desf. ex Fischer against Some Aquatic and Terrestrial Animal Pathogens. International Journal of Pharmacology, 8: 652-656.
L. Changxing, D. Dongfang, Z. Lixue, M. Saeed, M. Alagawany, M.R. Farag, M. Chenling & L. Jianhua (2019) Heracleum persicum: chemical composition, biological activities and potential uses in poultry nutrition, World’s Poultry Science Journal, 75:2, 207-218, DOI: 10.1017/S0043933919000205
Hajhashemi, V., Dashti, G., Saberi, S., & Malekjamshidi, P. (2014). The effect of hydroalcoholic extract and essential oil of Heracleum persicum on lipid profile in cholesterol-fed rabbits. Avicenna journal of phytomedicine, 4(3), 144–150.
Majidi, Z., Sadati Lamardi, S. N., Mohajjel-Nayebi, A., Vatankhah, A. M., Asnaashari, S., & Zakeri-Milani, P. (2020). Effects of Heracleum persicum Hydroalcoholic Extract on Insulin, Serum Anti-Oxidant Enzymes, Glucose, and Lipid Profiles in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats. Iranian journal of medical sciences, 45(3), 199–206.
