A herbaceous perennial plant that has been used in folk medicine for a long time under the popular name the locust creeper, or ground anchor, in recent decades has begun to attract the attention of pharmacists not only in the countries where it grows, but also where it has not been heard of until recently. As a result of many pharmacological studies conducted in recent years, its numerous medicinal properties have been fully confirmed.
First meeting
Creeping anchor is a plant that has thin roots and several stems branched from the very base, which can reach a length of more than half a meter. The stems are prone, hairy, fibrous, depending on their length, can have 5–8 paired, opposite branches of each other, pubescent by opposing and also paired leafless tops and leaflets lined with light down. The plant is considered poisonous to livestock.
It blooms in the period from April to May with small yellow single flowers, and the fruit, which is an irregularly shaped box with symmetrically arranged spikes and hooks, brings from June to July. Thanks to this form, the creeping anchor is transported over long distances, clinging to animal hair, people's clothing and even car tires. This plant is common in all regions with a temperate and hot climate. It is a perennial plant and is called in Latin Tribulus terrestris.
Undervalued grass
Traditional medicinal healers have successfully used some of the medicinal properties of infusions, solutions and extracts of creeping Tribulus in their practice to this day. This is the ability to have a positive effect on the vascular system of a person, reduce the level of "bad" cholesterol in the blood and lower blood pressure.
Recently, more and more pharmacologists have begun to pay special attention to this plant. And there are many reasons for this. The variety of medicinal properties of this plant is simply amazing. Due to the steroid glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids and tannins contained in the plant, the extract of Creeping Tribulus is truly a multifunctional tool for providing a healing effect on the entire human body.
Through exposure to important human systems and organs, such as the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal tract, bile ducts, diuretic apparatus and others, as well as due to the immunomodulating properties of the plant, the body receives a stimulating and health-restoring effect. Also, preparations based on this plant are used to treat impotence and infertility in men, to reduce the negative impact on the female body during the menopause that has begun.
With a wide range of effects on the body, and at the cellular level, Tribulus terrestris, reviews of the results of which can be found everywhere, is a truly effective and affordable remedy that has only two contraindications - personal intolerance and low pressure.
Antibiotic effect
Recent studies in world-renowned laboratories have proven the ability of some creeping elements isolated from the anchor, such as steroidal saponins, to act on many pathogenic fungi, and therefore these properties can well compete with the effects on fungi of some antibiotics. At the same time, a new degree of protection of the body becomes clear, in which the replacement of antibiotics with drugs produced using saponins from these plants will only benefit the patient.
It is worth noting that when testing three types of extract - water, ethanol and chloroform, made from the leaves, roots and fruits of the plant, different activity on 11 pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi was noted! And the ethanol tribulus terrestris (herb) extract is in no way inferior to the common antibiotics with a wide spectrum of action, and even surpasses them in something.
Hypolipidemic effect
An important property of extracts from Tribulus terrestris, or rather furastanol saponins, which are contained in the plant, is their ability to have a positive effect on the level of cholesterol in the blood of patients. And the use of drugs based on extracts from this plant for the treatment of coronal atherosclerosis had an effect already during the 3rd week of treatment: the patients had heart pains, tachycardia stopped, their blood pressure decreased, and they could sleep peacefully at night. The positive effect of drugs based on Tribulus terrestris and atherosclerosis of the lower extremities was also noted.
Antitumor effect
Scientists have also proved that extracts from Tribulus terrestris are quite effective as an agent with anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties. Separate steroidal saponins isolated from it turned out to be an effective remedy against such types of cancers as malignant melanoma, epidermoid oral carcinoma, breast carcinoma, and ovarian carcinoma .
Saponins proved to be a successful remedy even if they exposed to cancer cells of the mammary glands, liver, and renal carcinoma. An extract from another species of Tribulus terrestris, prepared on the basis of methanol, successfully acted on hepatoma tumor cells.
Preparations based on Creeping Tribulus
As can be judged from the above, this is a very useful plant. Several types of non-hormonal drugs are produced from it, one of which is Tribestan, produced in Bulgaria.
Also known is its form called "Tribusponin" - a drug for the treatment of infertility and impotence.
Anchor creeping in pharmacies can be purchased both in the form of components for infusions and decoctions, as well as in finished dosage forms. Teas are made from seeds, and decoctions and infusions are prepared from stems and leaves.