Heart-Leaved Moonseed (Makabuhay): The Herb That Can Protect The Liver

Heart-leaved moonseed, famously known as Makabuhay, Giloy, Guduchi, and heavenly elixir, is a native plant from tropical and subtropical rainforests in the Far East such as in India, Philippines, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. Even before the development of science and medicine, this plant has been used to treat various diseases. Unfortunately, it has lost its place in today’s modern time.

The roots, stems, and leaves of heart-leaved moonseed have all been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Here are some of the most amazing benefits of this magical plant.

Immunity Booster

Heart-leaved moonseed is loaded with antioxidants that keep your cells healthy, helps combat free radicals, and gets rid of diseases. It also helps purify the blood, fights bacteria, removes toxins, treats infertility, and fight urinary tract infection.

Treats Chronic Fever

The plant has anti-pyretic nature that helps in reducing symptoms of malaria, Swine-flu, and dengue. Consumption of heart-leaved moonseed can help increase platelet counts in your body, thereby curbing dengue.

Improves Mental Health

Heart-leaved moonseed acts as an adaptogenic herb, thus reducing stress and anxiety. Additionally, the plant can also calm your body and mind.

Improves Digestion

Consumption of the juice is beneficial in maintaining a healthy digestive system since it can make you more active and productive. Fight constipation, heartburn, and acidity by simply drinking a mixture of heart-leaved moonseed and amla – either as juice or powder – every morning.

Keeps The Skin Healthy

Heart-leaved moonseed possesses anti-aging properties that can help reduce pimple, fine lines, dark spots, and wrinkles.

Helpful For Arthritis Patients

Due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic properties, heart-leaved moonseed can help treat arthritis and its symptoms. To feel relief from joint pain, all you must do is to mix the powdered stem of the plant with milk, then boil and consume. Drink the mixture regularly to get rid of the unbearable pain.

Treatment For Diabetes

Studies have found that heart-leaved moonseed acts as a hypoglycemic agent and helps treat diabetes.

Heart-Leaved Moonseed And Liver Health

Exposure to heavy metals can lead to various health problems wherein the liver is one of the most commonly affected organs. In a research conducted at the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan and Bharathiar University in India, the result showed that by taking heart-leaved moonseed extract, you can possibly protect your liver from the damaging effects of these toxic heavy metals.

A silver-white heavy metal known as cadmium was used in the study. This type of metal is extracted when zinc, lead, and copper is produced. Cadmium is present in foods like shellfish, products like batteries and metal coatings, and from the air caused by emission from fossil fuels and cigarette smoke.

In this study, the researchers aimed to determine the protective effects of heart-leaved moonseed extracts on the liver of rats. The animals received 5 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of cadmium and were treated with 100 mg/kg of heart-leaved moonseed extract for 28 days. The rats’ serum and liver tissue homogenates were analyzed at the end of the treatment.

Based on the data gathered, it was found that the administration of cadmium caused change on the histology of the liver of rats, caused liver damage, and reduced the activities of antioxidants membrane ATPases, and tissue glycoproteins in liver tissues. Luckily, the use of heart-leaved moonseed extract brought everything back into normal levels.

Due to these results, researchers concluded that the antioxidants present in the extract may have liver-protective effects against cadmium-induced oxidative stress.