French Maritime Pine Bark Extract May Aid Asthmatics

French Maritime Pine Bark Extract May Aid Asthmatics

TUCSON, Ariz.--An herbal extract derived from French maritime pine bark may have application in improving the symptoms of asthma, according to a study published in the Winter 2001 issue of Journal of Medicinal Food (4, 4:201-210, 2001) (www.liebertpub.com). Ronald Watson, Ph.D., and colleagues from the University of Arizona conducted a randomized, double blind, crossover study comparing French maritime pine bark extract to placebo in 12 women and 10 men who had suffered from asthma for one to 16 years. Patients were randomly assigned to the extract group (1 mg/lb/d without exceeding 200 mg/d) or the placebo group. After four weeks, subjects reversed treatments.

Watson tested patients' airway function and discovered the percentage of the total lung volume that asthma patients could exhale in one second rose considerably after treatment with the extract, while the placebo group showed no improvement. In addition, asthma patients treated with the extract demonstrated reduced blood values of leukotrienes. (Leukotrienes cause the inflammatory condition and constriction of bronchi, processes that are responsible for airway obstruction in asthma patients.) Finally, patients in the extract group reported a reduction in symptom severity.

The French maritime pine bark extract used in this study, called Pycnogenol^®, is distributed by Hillside, N.J.-based Natural Health Sciences.