Angelica Archangelica
Angelica Archangelica is a biennial , perennial plant which belongs to the family of Apiaceae. You may know this family as celery, carrots or parsley.
This type of plant can grow to be six feel tall. The flowers are yellow and can blossom around July until August. It’s natural environment can be located in Scandinavia, Greenland, Iceland as well as Central Europe. It must have damp soil to be able to flourish and grow. During the 16th and 17th centuries Angelica was combined with many other herbs to create something called “Carmelite Water”, which was utilized as a medival drink to cure headaches, promote relaxation and a long life.
Benefits of Angelica Archangelica
Genus Angelica (Family: Apiaceae) comprises more than 60 species of medicinal plants. Many of these species have long been used in ancient traditional medicine systems, especially in the Eastern countries. For many years, several species of Angelica, e.g., A. archangelica, A. dahurica, A. keiskei, A. gigas, A. pubescens, A. sinensis, A. shikokiana have been used traditionally as anti-inflammatory, diuretic, expectorant, and diaphoretic. This chapter outlines the results of various scientific studies on Angelica species that were reported to have anticancer and antitumor activities.
Anti-Proliferative Effects – The aim of this work was to study the antiproliferative effect of a tincture from fruits of Angelica archangelica and the active components using the human pancreas cancer cell line PANC-1 as a model. Strong antiproliferative activity resulted from the two most abundant furanocoumarins in the tincture, imperatorin and xanthotoxin. The results indicate that furanocoumarins account for most of the antiproliferative activity of the tincture.
Antioxidant – Angelica sinensis (AS) was extracted with water or 20% ethanol for different time periods, and the antioxidant activity as well as flavor quality of the extracts were investigated. The AS extracts contained significant amount of phenolic acids, including nicotinic acid, phthalic acid, p-coumaric acid, and ferulic acid. Statistical analysis revealed that the antioxidant activity and phenolic acid concentration for all AS extracts exhibited a positive and significant linear correlation, suggesting that the phenolic acids are the important contributors for the antioxidant activity of the AS extracts.
Anti-mutagenic Activity – The antimutagenic activity Angelica archangelica L. water and alcohol extracts thio-tepa against mutagenicity was investigated by the micronucleus test in mouse bone marrow and peripheral blood cells. The reduction of thio-tepa mutagenic activity was more prominent when the extracts were injected 2-hours before thio-tepa treatment as it could be seen at the simultaneous treatment.
Anti-Anxiety – Angelica archangelica Linn. (Apiaceae) is an herb distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The mixture of coumarins isolated from A. archangelica and its constituents imperatorin and isoimperatorin have the potential to reduce anxiety but it is the mixture which have more significant activity as compared to its individual components.
The present study is aimed to evaluate the anxiolytic activity of methanol extract of root (MER), stem (MES), leaf (MEL), fruit (MEF) and whole plant (MEW) of Angelica archangelica Linn. All the extracts (MER, MES, MEL, MEF and MEW) were evaluated for anxiolytic effects using elevated plus maze test (EPM) model in rats. Whole plant and leaf showed the most, root and fruit the intermediate and stem the least anxiolytic activity.
Antimicrobial – In this paper, the chemical composition and the antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of Angelica archangelica L. (Apiaceae) roots from central Italy were analyzed. The oil shows a good antimicrobial activity against Clostridium difficile, Clostridium perfringens, Enterococcus faecalis, Eubacterium limosum, Peptostreptococcus anaerobius, and Candida albicans with minimum inhibitory concentration A weaker antimicrobial activity against bifidobacteria and lactobacilli—very useful in the intestinal microflora—has also been shown with MIC values >4.0% v/v.
