Desmodium: Nutritional Support for the Lungs and Free and Easy Breathing Through Nasal Passages
Viana Muller, Ph.D.Desmodium (Desmodium adscendens) is a little known but highly effective botanical native to Peru, Jamaica, Central America, and West Africa. For centuries, Desmodium has been used to support and promote lung health, ease breathing through nasal passages, and to relieve pain.
Q: What is the best herb in the world for opening the bronchial tubes in your lungs?
A: Desmodium adscendens
Q: How does it compare with Ephedra?
A: Ephedra is also good for opening the bronchial tubes but it can increase your pulse rate and raise your blood pressure.
Q: What is Desmodium adscendens traditionally used for?
A: Asthma, bronchitis, collapsed lungs, allergies, liver detoxification, to relieve back, shoulder, and knee pain, for menstrual cramps, ovarian inflammation, and pain.to name a few traditional uses.
Addy, M.E., Awumey, E.M., “Effects of the extracts of Desmodium adscendens on anaphylaxis,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 1984, Aug 11 (3), 283-92.
Abstract: Desmodium adscendens, used by herbalists in Ghana for the treatment of asthma, is anti-anaphylactic in vitro. As the plant material is administered orally, in vivo studies of its anti-anaphylactic property were undertaken using the guinea-pig. The results show that both aqueous and ethanolic extracts of D. adscendens, when taken, orally, reduce anaphylactic contractions, interfere with histamine-induced contractions, and reduce the amount of smooth muscle stimulating substances released from lung tissue of guinea pigs.
McManus, OB, et. al., “An activator of calcium-dependent potassium channels isolated from a medicinal herb,” Biochemistry, 1993, June 22. 32 (24): 6128-33.
From Abstract: Large-conductance calcium-dependent potassium (maxi-K) channels play an important role in regulating the tone of airway smooth muscle and the release of bronchoconstrictive substances from nerves in the lung. Crude extracts of Desmodium adscendens, a medicinal herb used in Ghana as a treatment for asthma, inhibit binding of monoiodatyrosine charybdotoxin (1251-ChTX) to receptor sites in bovine tracheal smooth muscle membranes that have been shown to be associated with maxi-K channels. ……….This natural product is the first example of a high-affinity activator of calcium-dependent potassium channels and is the most potent known potassium channel opener.
Significance: Calcium-dependent potassium channel openers have the capacity to open the bronchial tubes and take a person out of an asthma attack in a short period of time. In Ghana, Desmodium adscendens is given to patients who appear in the emergency room of a hospital with an asthma attack. If the person is still able to swallow, strong Desmodium adscendens tea is administered, usually giving relief within a few minutes.
