Leukotrienes are chemicals—similar to histamines—that your body produces during an allergic reaction. Calm them and you quench allergy symptoms. Butterbur extract, made from the heart-shaped leaves of the herb, blocks leukotrienes from doing their job. Scottish researchers found the herb cleared people's stuffy noses and stopped their sneezing just as well as a prescription drug. And when researchers in Switzerland tested butterbur leaf extract in 580 people with seasonal allergic rhinitis—runny nose, sneezing, congestion, red eyes, itchy eyes and itchy nose—their allergy symptoms improved in 90% of patients who took butterbur leaf extract.
This special butterbur extract has anti-spasmodic and anti-inflammatory properties as demonstrated in pharmacological and experimental systems: it regulates calcium channels and inhibits the synthesis of the enzymes lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase.
Efficacy and tolerability of the special butterbur root extract was demonstrated in two randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trials with more than 300 adult patients and in one open trial in 108 children and adolescents.
Conditions
- Allergies
Recommendations
- Petasites hybridus L. (8 mg petasines per tablet), twice a day for two weeks
Interactions & Side Effects
- Those with kidney or liver disease should not take butterbur
Disclaimer: This website is for information purposes only. By providing the information contained herein we are not diagnosing, treating, curing, mitigating, or preventing any type of disease or medical condition. Before beginning any type of natural, integrative or conventional treatment regime, it is advisible to seek the advice of a licensed healthcare professional.
