What are the benefits of honeysuckle?

Honeysuckle is the dried flower buds or flowers with first bloom of Lonicera japonica. It is rod-shaped, thick at the top and thin at the bottom, slightly curved, 2-3cm long, 3mm in diameter at the upper part and 1.5mm in diameter at the lower part, with a yellowish-white or greenish-white surface, densely pubescent. The main active ingredients are chlorogenic acid and luteolin. Chlorogenic acid is widely found in plants, with higher content in honeysuckle and eucommia, and has a wide range of pharmacological effects. Chlorogenic acid has a wide range of applications in the fields of medicine, daily chemicals, food and so on.

Honeysuckle extract (Lonicera japonica) is an extract, extracted from the natural plant honeysuckle, the main ingredient is chlorogenic acid, the color is brown powder, which can be used as raw materials for drugs, health products, cosmetics.

The Divine Husbandman's Classic of the Materia Medica classifies it as a top quality product and has the record of “taking it for a long time to lighten up the body”: “Famous Doctors' Record” describes that it has the function of treating “Departmental Heat and Swelling of the Body”;

Compendium of Materia Medica” said it can cure ‘all wind-dampness and all swollen poisons, scabies, Yangmei, all the evil sores, dissipate heat and detoxification’. Said that it is not only “to cure the wind in addition to bloating, dysentery and expel corpses” of the medicine, but also “to eliminate swellings and poisons, a good agent for treating sores”, and made the Lonicera japonica, stems and leaves, and flowers have the same function, take a long time to lighten up the body and longevity of the conclusion. Honeysuckle can be used alone or in combination with other medicines, either as pills, in wine, internally or externally.

Functional active ingredients of honeysuckle extract

Flavonoids. At present, more than 50 kinds of flavonoids have been isolated from honeysuckle, among which flavonoids and flavonols are the most common. Some scholars have found that honeysuckle extract has a significant inhibitory effect on the oxidation of lard.

Organic acid components. This is the material basis of honeysuckle clearing heat and detoxification, has been isolated and identified more than 40 kinds. It mainly contains chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, palmitic acid and other organic acids, among which, chlorogenic acid is the most important active substance for clearing heat and detoxification.

Volatile oil. At present, about 390 kinds of honeysuckle volatile oil components have been identified, due to the different honeysuckle origin, processing technology, etc., there are differences in the types and quantities of volatile oils contained in the honeysuckle.

Honeysuckle polysaccharide. Its ability to enhance the body's immunity.

Modern pharmacological studies have shown that the active ingredients in honeysuckle have three main effects:

① Honeysuckle extract has a wide range of antibacterial, inhibitory effect on gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus haemolyticus, Diplococcus pneumoniae, Bordetella pertussis etc., and also has strong inhibitory effect on gram-negative bacteria such as Shigella dysentery bacillus, Typhoid bacillus, Paratyphoid bacillus, Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, human tuberculosis bacillus, meningitis diphthongs etc. It is also effective on leptospirosis. The decoction of this product has in vitro inhibitory effect on a variety of skin fungi such as Trichophyton coriaceum, Psoriasis hulanchii, Serratia marcescens, S. epidermidis, S. asteroides, and so on. Recent studies have shown that honeysuckle has antimicrobial effects on the common pathogenic bacteria causing oral diseases such as Streptococcus pyogenes, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Pseudomonas gingivalis, and Pseudomonas melanogaster. Honeysuckle, or its compound, has an inhibitory effect on respiratory viruses such as influenza Asian A and orphan viruses, and can inhibit and delay their cytopathic effects. In addition, it has an inhibitory effect on herpes viruses. It is generally believed that its main active ingredient is chlorogenic acid compounds.

② It has the function of enhancing immunity. Honeysuckle can promote the transformation of lymphocytes, enhance the phagocytic function of white blood cells.

③ Anti-inflammatory, antipyretic. Honeysuckle can promote the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone, which has a significant inhibitory effect on inflammation. Honeysuckle tea has a unique weight loss function, but also can inhibit and kill pathogenic bacteria in the throat, the elderly and children have anti-infective effect. Regular consumption of honeysuckle infusion or decoction is beneficial to the treatment and rehabilitation of wind-fire and eye-bleed, sore throat, obesity, liver-heat and liver-heat hypertension.