Our Price: $11.00

SKU: DL77369-60X

The prime active ingredient in the berries of the Chinese plant Schisandra chinensis, the lignan schisandrin, not only protects the liver against toxins and improves healing processes, but also acts as an adaptogen, aiding the body when confronted with stress.* Schisandra Max-V provided by Douglas Laboratories is standardized to 9% schisandrin.

FUNCTIONS
Schisandra has small red berries, with the "five flavors" (sweet, sour, pungent, bitter and salty) of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Schisandra contains lignuns (schisandrins and gosmin A), B-bisabolene, and vitamins. This extract is standardized at 9% R-schisandra.

Traditionally used in Chinese medicine for millennia, schisandra is known as a restorative tonic. Its berries are thought to protect the liver, tone the kidneys and sexual organs, and strengthen the nervous system.* Western science has investigated these properties only recently relative to this herb’s long therapeutic history.

The liver is the body’s detoxifying organ, disabling toxins such as ethanol, environmental poisons, pesticides, and certain pharmaceuticals. In addition to its detoxification properties, the liver plays an essential role in protein, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism, cholesterol synthesis, bile secretion, and storage of fat-soluble vitamins. When damaged or diseased, the liver’s ability to eliminate toxins and perform its numerous other functions may be severely impaired.

It has been shown that schisandra’s antioxidant action is involved in its hepatoprotection. Schisandrin, one of the herb’s active components, a lignan, works in response to hepatotoxin challenge to sustain hepatic mitochondrial reduced glutathione levels by stimulating mitochondrial glutathione reductase, as well as levels of liver ascorbic acid and alpha- tocopherol.

Schisandra’s lignans have also exhibited strong protective effects on Phase I oxidative metabolism in carbon tetrachloride-damaged liver. Liver injuries may also be inhibited by schisandra’s effect on normal inflammatory processes. Schisandra’s lignans produce an inhibitory effect on macrophages’ inflammatory leukotriene biosynthesis by suppressing the release of arachadonic acid. In addition to Schisandra’s hepatoprotective activity, it also promotes the repair of injured liver cells by stimulating anabolic metabolism, such as serum protein biosynthesis and glycogenesis. Schisandra supplementation contributes to expedited cell regeneration by enhancing DNA synthesis and ornithine decarboxylase activity, important steps in early stages of liver regeneration.*