Sambung Nyawa

Sambung Nyawa
Scientific Name	Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr
Order	Asterales
Family	Asteraceae
Plant material of interest	Leaves

{slider=Geographical & Distribution}

Widely distributed in South East Asia

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{slider=General Appearance}

Annual evergreen shrub  with fleshy stem and purple tint. 10-25 cm high. It have succelent , elliptic and glossy purplish leves. Flowering heads are panicled, narrow, yellow and 1 to 1.5 centimeteres long.

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{slider=Chemical Content}

Active chemical constituents are flavonoids, saponins, tannins and terpenoids (Akowuah, et al., 2002). The contents of moisture was 7.08%, carbohydrate was 0.0537 to 0.1968 μg glucose equivalent/100 g dry weight at EGE 0.1 μg mL^-1, protein was 4.51 g/100 g dry weight and lipid was 0.023 g/100 g dry weight. As protein source and that have positive effects on free radical scavenging and iron chelating (Puangpronpitag D. et al, 2010)

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{slider=Traditional Uses}

Gynura procumbens (Compositae) has been used as folk remedy for the treatment to control diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia. Treatment of eruptive fevers, rash, kidney disease, migraine. Constipation, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and cancer (Perry, 1980). G. procumbens is believed by the Chinese to be one that possesses the ability to lower blood pressure and sugar levels. Usually will recommend to eat 3 – 7 leaves daily in the raw form, 5-8 leaves per meal is enough.

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{slider=Pharmacology}

Anti-diabetic

At the concentration 0.1mg/mL of hexane fraction showed increase in glucose uptake activity 4.5 fold whereas etyl acetate fraction increased 2.2 fold at 0.005 mg/mL of compare to untreated. For butanol fraction showed dependent manner of insulin and at 0.05mg/mL of extract, glucose uptake activity was increased 1.4 fold compare to the insulin.These results suggest that the antidiabetic action of G. procumbens may be mediated throught the stimulation of glucose uptake and the potentiation of insulin action (Bohari M. et al., 2006).

Wounds healing

Wounds dressed with 100 and 200 mg/ml ethanol leaf extract significantly enhanced and accelerated the rate of wound healing enclosure in rats. (Zahra A.A. et al., 2011).

Antitumor

Hew C.S. et al (2013) investigated the bioactivity of gel filtration fractionated proteins of G. procumbens leaf extract. The active protein fraction, SN-F11/12, was found to inhibit the growth of a breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231, at an EC50 value of 3.8 µg/mL. The mRNA expressions of proliferation markers, Ki67 and PCNA, were reduced significantly in the MDA-MB-23 cells treated with SN-F11/12. The expression of invasion marker, CCL2, was also found reduced in the treated MDA-MB-231 cells.

Hypertention

Aqueous extracts of Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr. were orally administered to spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats for 4 weeks, and antihypertensive effects were determined. Oral administration of 500 mg/kg of G. procumbens (Lour.) Merr. extract (GPE) resulted in significantly lower blood pressure in SHR rats compared with SHR rats not given GPE (P < .05). Furthermore, GPE-administered rats had significantly lower serum lactate dehydrogenase, creatine phosphate kinase, and increased nitric oxide (NO), a known vasodilator, compared with the non-GPE-administered SHR group (P < .05). These results suggest that oral administration of aqueous GPE may be useful for prevention and treatment of hypertension through increasing NO production in blood vessels (Kim M.J. et al., 2006).

Male Reproductive System

Diabetes mellitus is believed to bring negative effects on the male reproductive system through an increase in oxidative stress. Gynura procumbens, a local herb with anti-hyperglycemic and anti-diabetic properties, has been traditionally used to treat the disease. The present study aimed to assess the anti-diabetic activity of aqueous G. procumbens and the effect of treatment on the reproductive system in streptozotocin-induced male diabetic rats. Glibenclamide, an established anti-diabetic drug, was used as a positive control in the study. Diabetic rats (n=5) force-fed with G. procumbens aqueous extract with 100 mg/kg dosage (n=5) showed increased sperm count and motility by 25.12% and 23.97±1.09% respectively while sperm mortality decreased by 38.43% as compared to the controls. Testicular LDH specific activities in G. procumbens aqueous extract treated rats were increased by 72.53%. On the other hand, diabetic rats force-fed with glibenclamide with 5 mg/kg dosage (n=5) showed decreased sperm count and slightly increased sperm motility by 4.65% and 19.94±1.26%, respectively, while sperm mortality increased significantly (p<0.05) by 38.43% as compared to the controls. Testicular LDH specific activities in libenclamide treated rats were increased by 26.58%(Kalim P., et al, 2008)

Others

Pharmacological studies have indicated that G. procumbens has antioxidant (Rosidah et al., 2009), anti-herpes simplex virus (Nawawi et al., 1999), anti-hyperglycemic (Hassan et al., 2010), antiinflammatory (Iskander et al., 2002), antiulcer (Mahmood et al., 2010), anti hyperlipidemic (Zhang & Tan, 2000) and blood pressure reduction capabilities (Kim et al., 2006).

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{slider=Toxicity Studies}

Administration of the methanol extract from Gynura procumbens leaves at 1000–5000 mg/kg did not produce mortality or significant changes in the general behaviour, bodyweight, or organ gross appearance of rats. There were no significant differences in the general condition, growth, organ weights, haematological parameters, clinical chemistry values, or gross and microscopic appearance of the organs from the treatment groups as compared to the control group. Therefore, the NOAEL for the Gynura procumbens methanol extract is 500 mg/(kg day) administered orally for 13 weeks (Rosidah et al., 2009).

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{slider=Reference}

Akowuah, G.A., Sadikun, A., Mariam, A., 2002. Flavonoid identification and hypoglycaemic studies of butanol fraction from Gynura procumbens. Pharmaceutical Biology 40, Pg: 405–410.

Bohari M., S. Pauliena and H. Muhajir & S. Khozirah and L. Nordin (2006) Glucose Uptake: Stimulatory Activity of Gynura procumbens in 3T3-F442A adipocytes. In Malaysia Medicinal Plant: Chemistry and Biological Uptake. UNIMAS and Malaysian Natural Products Society Abstract http://eprints.utm.my/921/

Kalim P., H. Abdullah Sani & M Mat Nor (2008). Effects of Gynura procumbens Extract and Glibenclamide on Sperm Quality and Specific Activity of Testicular Lactate Dehydrogenase in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats. Malaysian Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 16(2), 10-14.

Hassan Z, Yam MF, Ahmad M, Yusof AP (2010). Antidiabetic properties and mechanism of action of G. procumbens water extract in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Mole., 15(12): 9008-90023.

Hew C.S., B.Y. Khoo and L.H. Gam (2013) The anti cancer Property of Proteins Extracted from Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr Plos ONE 8(7):e68524. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068524

Iskander MN, Song Y, Coupar IM, Jiratchariyakul W ( 2002). Antiinflammatory screening of the medicinal plant Gynura procumbens. Plant Foods for Hum. Nutr., 57: 233–244.

Kim MJ, Lee HL, Wiryowidagdo S, Kim HK (2006). Antihypertensive effects of G.procumbens extract in spontaneously hypertensive rats. J. Med. Food, 9: 587-590.

Mahmood AA, Mariod AA, Abdelwahab SI, Ismail S, Al BF (2010). Potential activity of ethanolic extract of Boesenbergia rotunda (L.) rhizomes extract in accelerating wound healing in rats. J. Med. Plants Res., 4(15): 1570-1576.

Nawawi A, Nakamura N, Hattori M, Kurokawa M, Shiraki K (1999). Inhibitory effects of Indonesian medicinal plants on the infection of herpes simplex virus type-1. Phytother. Res., 13: 37-41.

Perry, L.M., (1980). Medicinal Plants of East and Southeast Asia: Attributed Properties and Uses. The MIT Press, USA, p. 94.

Puangpronpitag, D., S. Chaichanadee, W. Naowaratwattana, C. Sittiwet, K. Thammasarn, A. Luerang and N. Kaewseejan, (2010). Evaluation of nutritional value and antioxidative properties of the medicinal plant Gynura procumbens extract. Asian J. Plant Sci., 9: 146-151.

Rosidah, Mun Fei Yamb,d, Amirin Sadikunb, Mariam Ahmad,Gabriel Akyirem Akowuahc, Mohd. Zaini Asmawi (2009). Toxicology evaluation of standardized methanol extract of Gynura procumbens Journal of Ethnopharmacology 123, 244-249.

Zahra A., F. A. Kadir, A. A. Mahmood1, A. A. Al hadi, S. M. Suzy, S. Z. Sabri, I. I. Latif and K. A. Ketuly (2011).  Acute toxicity study and wound healing potential of Gynura procumbens leaf extract in rats  Journal of medicnal Plants Research Vol. 5 (12), Pg 2551-2558.

Zhang XF, Tan BK (2000). Effects of an ethanolic extract of G.procumbens on serum glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels in normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Singapore Med. J., 41: 9-13.

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