Astragalus: immunity and resistance

Astragalus is the plant for supporting vital energy

Astragalus is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows naturally in China on the sunny slopes of mountains. Its root produces stems about thirty cm long bearing alternate leaves and about fifteen leaflets. Its flowers, formed in pedunculated clusters, are lilac in colour. The fruit is a long oval pod, but it is only the root that is harvested for medicinal use.

In the oldest book in human history, the Pen Isas, dating back more than 5000 years, the Chinese emperor Shen Hong listed 365 substances beneficial to man, one for each day of the year. At the top of this list is astragalus, considered the "great tonic", which stimulates failing energy including in cases of very great fatigue or exhaustion.

Astragalus is rich in multiple components: saponins, sitosterols, flavonoids, polysaccharides, amino acids, trace elements, beta-carotenes, vitamins…

Called Hang Qi, which means yellow energy, astragalus is an adaptogenic plant, therefore capable of regulating physiological dysfunctions.
Thanks to its tonic virtues, it can just as well prevent weakening as stimulate failing energy.
Its properties to strengthen natural defences make it immuno-stimulating, anti-infectious, antioxidant, tonic and hepato-protective.
It is therefore natural to find it in cases of poor general condition, great fatigue, convalescence, and as a complement to heavy therapeutic treatments.
It is thought that astragalus acts as a catalyst for interferon and it also seems to protect bone marrow cells, the site of important immune activity.

In October 2009, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three American researchers who identified telomerase, an enzyme playing an essential role in the process of cellular ageing.
And in September 2010, another team of American researchers discovered that the active molecules of astragalus were able to stimulate the activity of Telomerase, to the point that after a year of study, the researchers described astragalus as an "anti-ageing" plant.

In short, at all ages of life and in all circumstances, astragalus is the plant for supporting vital energy and allows us to add life to years.