An aqueous extract of purslane has anti-anging activity. - GreenMedInfo Summary

The natural plant purslane herb aqueous extracts (PHAS) has been reported to have antiaging properties. In order to evaluate its antiaging mechanisms and to search for new antiaging drugs from natural products, the antiaging effects of PHAS were assessed at doses of 2.5, 5, 10 mg/(kg day) in Sprague-Dawley(SD) mice injected daily with d-galactose (d-gal) (50 mg/(kg day). PHAS-treated mice showed higher activity upon introduction by new environmental stimuli, lower anxiety and higher novelty-seeking behavior in the open field tasks, and significantly improved learning and memory ability in step-through tests compared with mice treated with only d-gal. It was found that PHAS significantly increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and decreased the malondialdehyde (MDA) level. Meanwhile, PHAS also could up-regulate telomere lengths and telomerase activity. Furthermore, the expression of p21(waf1) and p53 mRNA and protein were examined in mouse brain using western blotting and RT-PCR. It was found that PHAS down-regulated p21(waf1) without changing the expression of p53. The results from this study suggested that PHAS might be a primary target of p21(waf1) and the antiaging effect of PHAS might be mediated by a p21(waf1)-dependent and p53-independent pathway. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.