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Herbal Cleansing
by author C. Leigh Broadhurst, PhD

Plants cleanse and revitalize our bodies from the inside. Our body systems are designed to utilize the benefits of plants, and we may suffer chronic illness and premature aging if we do not consume enough botanical bounties.

Many natural plant chemicals (phytochemicals) work to break down and eliminate toxins, such as those from the environment, as well as those formed as normal byproducts of metabolism. Let’s look at some examples of how phytochemicals from medicinal and food plants help to cleanse and detoxify our bloodstream and tissues.

Your liver: cleansing specialist
Powerful herbs support the liver—one of the most important cleansing organs in the body. The liver has special long-lived cells that produce enzymes that neutralize toxins and convert them to forms that can be safely excreted.

Even when we live a supremely healthy life, our liver is under daily attack from reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs). Also known as free radicals or unstable oxygenated compounds, ROMs are our largest cleanup problem. Most ROMs are naturally and unavoidably produced by activated immune cells, increased metabolism, strenuous exercise, and as part of the response to tissue injury.

Antioxidants from plants cleanse by acting like chemical sacrificial lambs, preferentially reacting with ROMs so they don’t get a chance to react with our tissues. This sacrifice is the reason antioxidants reduce chronic pain and inflammation.

The herbs and the bees
If we’re not living a supremely healthy life, our liver may be so overloaded it can’t fully cleanse our blood. That’s where the powerful herbs that support liver function can help. Standardized extracts of Silybum marianum (milk thistle), Schisandra chinensis, Picrorhiza kurroa, and curcumin (turmeric) have been shown in numerous human and animal studies to protect the liver from cancer chemotherapy, alcohol abuse, excessive paint and adhesive exposure, hepatitis, and deliberate poisoning with solvents and carcinogens (carbon tetrachloride, hydrazine, methanol).

If you’re otherwise healthy, but would like some daily liver cleansing support, I recommend bee propolis. Worker bees collect resins exuded from the leaf buds and bark of certain trees, and mix with them with a little wax, honey, and enzymes to make propolis. It’s used as putty to seal cracks, repair honeycombs, and sterilize the hive.

Bees are phytochemical experts: they have already done the research and development for us. Propolis is the most concentrated, all-purpose botanical detoxifier known.

Carotenoid air filters
Carotenoids, from the Latin word carota, impart a characteristic deep orange colour to fruits and vegetables such as carrots, squash, apricots, peppers, mangoes, tomatoes, and pumpkin. More than 600 carotenoids are found in nature, and about 50 of these are consumed in appreciable quantities in our diet.

Orange, yellow, and red fruits and vegetables are particularly rich in carotenoids. They also occur in green produce, but the green pigment of chlorophyll masks them. In autumn, when the leaves of deciduous trees die, the chlorophyll fades and the brilliant carotenoid colours are revealed.

Carotenoids are exceedingly important antioxidants for humans, animals, and even the plants that manufacture them. Humans distribute carotenoids—especially lycopene—throughout our bloodstream and tissues. Increased levels of carotenoids are associated with stronger, healthier lung function and reduced risk of asthma.

Lung tissue is particularly vulnerable to ROM damage since it functions to exchange gases and is constantly exposed to airborne contaminants. In a University of North Carolina study, 23 healthy subjects received a high-lycopene vegetable juice or placebo for two weeks. Afterward they were exposed to ozone (a common air pollutant) in a chamber while they exercised intermittently. The carotenoid-rich vegetable juice reduced lung-cell DNA damage by 20 percent compared to placebo.

Free-radical shields
The enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) is one of the primary antioxidants for all organisms that utilize or come in contact with oxygen. Everything—from bacteria to plants to humans—contains SOD within almost every cell.

SOD has the specific function of reacting with the superoxide ion, a particularly nasty ROM with an extra, highly unstable electron that it very much wants to get rid of. Superoxide is highly toxic to cells and tissues—left unchecked, it essentially burns us from the inside.

C. Leigh Broadhurst, PhD, is a geochemist and geobotanist at a leading US government agricultural research facility and a natural health author, lecturer, and consultant.

Source: alive #317, March 2009