Eight plants used in traditional Arab medicine in Israel 

Of these extracts, those prepared from Teucrium poliumand Pistacia lentiscus were the most effective in suppressing iron-induced lipid peroxidation........

Don' bother to spend your time on this technical article.[just read this introduction]

It just come to show that we are heavily blessed with superior medical herbs in Israel

Teucrium polium [ known as ga-ada in israel] is widely used in folk[arabic] medicine.

It also has been shown to have a thirst-supressing effect and it may be useful before fast-days [tzom].[ i never try it myself ]

From this article it seems to me  {??} that it also maybe useful for people with a high iron [ferritine] level [suspicion of haemochromatosis[hemochromatosis]

This would be a big advantage , because their are little advise to give for this problem [except blood-donation [hakazat dam]

[ Hemochromatosis, the most common form of iron overload disease, is an inherited disorder that causes the body to absorb and store too much iron. The extra iron builds up in organs and damages them. Without treatment, the disease can cause these organs to fail].

Journal of Ethnopharmacology 

Volume 99, Issue 1 , 13 May 2005, Pages 43-47

doi:10.1016/j.jep.2005.01.060        

Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd All rights reserved.

Antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity of eight plants used in traditional Arab medicine in Israel

Predrag Ljubuncica, Hassan Azaizehb, Irina Portnaya c, Uri Coganc, Omar Saidb, Khalid Abu Salehb and Arieh Bomzon a, ,  

aDepartment of Pharmacology, Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion?Israel Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 9649, 31096Haifa, Israel
bResearch and Development Regional Centre (affiliated with Haifa University, Haifa, Israel), The Galilee Society, Shefa Amr, Israel
cFaculty of Food Engineering and Biotechnology, Technion?Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel 

Received 18 August 2004;  revised 24 January 2005;  accepted 24 January 2005.  Available online 31 March 2005. 

Abstract

Ethnopharmacological surveys conducted among herbal practitioners of traditional Arab medicine in Israel and the Palestinian area have revealed a large number of indigenous plant species are used as sources of their herbal therapies. Some of these herbal therapies are used to treat liver disease, jaundice or diabetes, conditions in which oxidative stress is prominent. No laboratory data on the bioactivity of herbal medicines in these settings exist in traditional Arab medicine. We hypothesized that the beneficial effect of these plants might be due to their antioxidant properties. Accordingly, we selected eight plants used to treat these two conditions and assessed their antioxidant potential by measuring their ability to suppress the extent of iron-induced lipid peroxidation in rat liver homogenates and their potential toxicity by evaluating their effects on mitochondrial respiration and cell membrane integrity in cultured PC12 and HepG2 cells. We found that all the extracts can suppress iron-induced lipid peroxidation and are not toxic. Of these extracts, those prepared from Teucrium poliumand Pistacia lentiscus were the most effective in suppressing iron-induced lipid peroxidation. Further investigations are now needed to establish the exact mechanism of action and identify the active bio-ingredient(s) of each extract in order to explain their therapeutic efficacy.

Keywords: Arab traditional medicine; Antioxidant potential; Cytotoxicity; Oxidative stress; Liver disease; Diabetes

Abbreviations: ANOVA, one-way analysis of variance; DMEM, Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium; IC50, the concentration at which the extent of lipid peroxidation was suppressed by 50%; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; MDA, malondialdehyde; MTT, 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide; TBARS, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances 

Today I was lucky enough to speak to Prof. Arieh Bomzon who is now retired about this research.

He could not tell me if this research might  be useful clinically and no clinician ever contacted him about this research.......such a pity.

The Professor told me that there seem to be malondialdehyde kits [for home use] available.

Anybody treated for hemochromatosis may want to try to find out, because this could give an indication if iron peroxydation would be reduced by the use of ga-ada.

 This [biochemistry] subject is not my speciality but I suspect that using the herb here might be very worth trying.

I will try to find out more- if anybody tried ga-ada [teucrium] clinically for the described indication and may let you know.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 4 8295259; fax: +972 4 8524978.