Title

Evaluation on the combined effect of Sesamin and Schisandra extract on blood fluidity

Authors

Daniel Tsi^{1, *} and Amabel Tan²

Affiliation

¹BRAND’S Centre for Health and Nutritional Sciences, Cerebos Pacific Limited,18 Cross Street # 12-01/08, Singapore 048423; ²Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne,Victoria 3010, Australia

Email

danieltsi@yahoo.co.uk; * Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

received December 21, 2007; accepted January 02, 2008; published January 27, 2008

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated a link between blood viscosity and various forms of liver dysfunction. Therefore, we investigated the effect of liver protective herbal materials, Sesamin combined with extract of Schisandra chinensis berry (Schisandra) for its potential to improve blood fluidity in humans.  Ten human subjects were recruited to study the effect of sesamin combined with schisandra extract (SCH) for two weeks on blood viscosity. Blood fluidity was measured as the transit time for 100μl of heparinized whole blood to pass through a micro-channel array setup at baseline, 1 week and 2 weeks. For safety assessment, blood biochemistry, hematology and urine analysis were taken at baseline, 1 week and 2 weeks after SCH administration. No safety concern and adverse effects were observed during the 2-week continuous intake period. Intake of SCH reduced blood passage time by 9.0% and 9.7% at 1 and 2 weeks, respectively. In conclusion, this pilot clinical study indicates that the combined administration of sesamin with schisandra extract could improve blood fluidity after 1 week of oral intake and this effect was sustained up to 2 weeks.

Keywords

Schisandra chinensis; sesamin; blood fluidity; blood passage time; micro-channel array

Citation

Tsi & Tan, Bioinformation 2(6): 249-252 (2008)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.