Oregon Grape and Berberine
Oregon grape
Common in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon grape is Mahonia aquifolium, (aka Berberis aquifolium) also, Mahonia nervosa and Mahonia repens. There are many species worldwide, but Tall Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium, is the one most people are referring to in the US.
Oregon grape is growing in popularity. It’s become so popular it’s being over harvested in the wild. It’s under pressure in wild places, even though it has become invasive in some areas. It’s a very hardy plant, but the stems and roots are used medicinally. In harvesting it, you decimate the plant. Oregon grape is now on the Species At-Risk List compiled by United Plant Savers. (As of the writing of this article, the webpage isn’t updated, but it is on the updated downloadable pdf.).
Buying cultivated or growing your own are the best ways to get Oregon grape.
Oregon grape. (Copyright 2023)
Substitutions:
Barberry, Berberis vulgaris, can be used as a substitute for Mahonia aquifolium. They have many of the same properties. Goldenseal is another substitute, but also at-risk. This is one reason Oregon grape has increased in popularity. It has been used as a substitute for Goldenseal, but now they are both at-risk.
More cultivation of Oregon grape is needed. It’s easy to grow in most climates if you’d like to have your own supply. As of the writing of this article in 2023, Mountain Rose Herbs’ Oregon grape is cultivated and organic - just to be clear, I don’t get any compensation from them.
Oregon grape is getting a lot of attention for good reasons – and not so good reasons. Oregon grape is one of several plants containing berberine, an alkaloid. It’s being called “nature’s Ozempic,” which is for blood glucose.
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Side note: Alkaloids are chemicals that can affect humans. They’re found in plants and some animals. Nicotine and morphine are familiar plant alkaloids from plants. Some alkaloids are toxic and some are good for us. Taking isolated chemicals as a supplement can be risky and can do more harm than good. Our bodies can become over taxed trying to process such large amounts of a single substance. Plus you don’t get all the other health promoting constituents found in whole plants.
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Is Oregon grape or berberine like a natural pharmaceutical? Absolutely not. It’s not a panacea. Besides, berberine doesn’t exist in an isolated form in nature. Strictly speaking, it’s not natural.
Should I take berberine? That depends. If you’re prone to constipation, then probably not. It could cause disruptions in gut bacteria. It’s used in China as a remedy for diarrhea. However, it could be helpful for people with type 2 diabetes or cancer (Zhang, 2008), (Damjanovic, 2020).
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Berberine has been the focus of many studies in the last several years. Hopefully, there will be more studies done on the health benefits of the whole plant for humans, not just berberine. More studies need to be done on whole plants, as each of the components work together for more well-rounded medicinal effects.
Many of the studies referenced in recent articles about berberine or Oregon grape cite reviews and meta-analyses. These references aren’t studies with new data, but they look at collections of data. Just a friendly reminder to check your sources.
We are in the beginning stages of understanding, on a scientific level, exactly how Oregon grape and berberine affect us. Most berberine studies have been done on cells or on animals, which is another reason why it would help to have more research done involving actual humans with herbs like Oregon grape. For the record, I’m very much against animal testing and I wouldn’t use any results from a study done on animals for any purpose. These studies mentioned below are examples of the kinds of studies used to fuel the Oregon grape trend.
Quick overviews of a few studies to help put things into perspective:
A Serbian study, although limited in its statistical analysis, showed B. aquifolium to be a promising addition to certain cancer treatments and it works well with the drug Doxorubicin. This may allow for a reduction in the amount of Doxorubicin patients need to endure and it also suggests Oregon grape has some anticancer activity (Damjanovic, 2020).
A Chinese study looked at berberine and its relationship to polycystic ovary syndrome with positive results. They haven’t determined the ways in which berberine works, but they are calling it promising (Zhang, 2021).
Another Chinese study, using both human cells and live mice, showed berberine has anti-cancer activity (Liu, 2015).
A study, also done in China, asserts they have determined the way that berberine inhibits melanoma in cells. It also mentions several other studies that suggest berberine inhibits several different types of cancers (Liu, 2018).
Finally, reviews. It would take hours to go through all the berberine references being talked about, like this one for example. It’s a review and meta-analysis of 37 studies (Xie, 2022). I spent some time going through a few. Many were in Chinese, so I couldn’t read them. One of the 37 studies included in the above review involved only 57 patients that took berberine and 49 who were in the placebo group. They were all patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Several of the patients in the berberine group had additional medical procedures and it’s difficult to say if the procedures affected the results. The study reports that people who took berberine had a significant drop in glucose levels, and LDL cholesterol. They also lost weight (Zhang, 2008).
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I’m not suggesting these studies are not worth paying attention to. It’s just a good idea to look at a few, at least, to get an idea of what kind of research is really being done for perspective. The quality, context, and relevance of the study matters.
Research can help us understand the big picture better, but we still need to understand our own particular needs. Supplement usefulness varies widely. In the end, everyone’s situation is different.
Pushing entire species of plants to possible extinction is insanity. The path to better health is a long game. Trends come and go. Awareness and preservation of our wild plants is the healthy long game for us and for generations to come.
Keep Oregon grape wild.
Sources below.
Oregon grape (Copyright 2023)
Sources:
https://nativeplantspnw.com/tall-oregon-grape-mahonia-aquifolium/
Damjanović, A., Kolundžija, B., Matić, I. Z., Krivokuća, A., Zdunić, G., Šavikin, K., Janković, R., Stanković, J. A., & Stanojković, T. P. (2020). Mahonia aquifolium Extracts Promote Doxorubicin Effects against Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells In Vitro. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 25(22), 5233. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25225233
Liu, J. F., Lai, K. C., Peng, S. F., Maraming, P., Huang, Y. P., Huang, A. C., Chueh, F. S., Huang, W. W., & Chung, J. G. (2018). Berberine Inhibits Human Melanoma A375.S2 Cell Migration and Invasion via Affecting the FAK, uPA, and NF-κB Signaling Pathways and Inhibits PLX4032 Resistant A375.S2 Cell Migration In Vitro. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 23(8), 2019. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23082019
Liu, X., Ji, Q., Ye, N., Sui, H., Zhou, L., Zhu, H., Fan, Z., Cai, J., & Li, Q. (2015). Berberine Inhibits Invasion and Metastasis of Colorectal Cancer Cells via COX-2/PGE2 Mediated JAK2/STAT3 Signaling Pathway. PloS one, 10(5), e0123478. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123478
Xie, W., Su, F., Wang, G., Peng, Z., Xu, Y., Zhang, Y., Xu, N., Hou, K., Hu, Z., Chen, Y., & Chen, R. (2022). Glucose-lowering effect of berberine on type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in pharmacology, 13, 1015045. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1015045
Zhang, S. W., Zhou, J., Gober, H. J., Leung, W. T., & Wang, L. (2021). Effect and mechanism of berberine against polycystic ovary syndrome. Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie, 138, 111468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111468
Zhang, Y., Li, X., Zou, D., Liu, W., Yang, J., Zhu, N., Huo, L., Wang, M., Hong, J., Wu, P., Ren, G., & Ning, G. (2008). Treatment of type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia with the natural plant alkaloid berberine. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 93(7), 2559–2565. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2007-2404
