Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Apr 17, 2025 2 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes ago
Medical News: A team of scientists from Henan University of Chinese Medicine and Ningxia Medical University in China has unveiled compelling new evidence that a natural plant-based extract from Nelumbinis Plumula—a traditional Chinese medicinal herb derived from the lotus seed embryo—can significantly improve sleep quality. Their research, which focused on rats with chemically induced insomnia, found that a particular alkaloid-rich extract from this herb not only helped restore normal sleep patterns but also worked by directly influencing critical brain chemicals and receptors involved in sleep regulation.
Researchers Discover Powerful Natural Sleep Remedy from Lotus Plant
This
Medical News report explores how the researchers used a specialized rat model mimicking insomnia in humans. They administered various extracts of Nelumbinis Plumula (NP), including a total extract, a total alkaloid extract (NPA), and a crude polysaccharide extract (NPP), to assess which compounds were most effective in treating insomnia. Among all the tested forms, the total alkaloid extract showed the strongest results—shortening the time it took for rats to fall asleep and prolonging their overall sleep duration.
The Power of Traditional Chinese Medicine Meets Modern Neuroscience
The research team, which included experts from the Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and the Henan Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine for Respiratory Disease, utilized advanced mass spectrometry to analyze the chemical components of NP. They found that the extract contains hundreds of compounds, with alkaloids and flavonoids being the most abundant. Isoquinoline alkaloids such as neferine, liensinine, and isoliensinine were especially concentrated in the alkaloid extract and are believed to be responsible for the sleep-enhancing effects.
To simulate insomnia, the researchers gave rats a compound called para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA), which disrupts serotonin production and throws off the body's natural sleep rhythms. After just a few days, these animals displayed typical insomnia behaviors like restlessness, reduced weight, and delayed sleep onset. However, rats that received the NP alkaloid extract soon showed clear improvements: they became calmer, fell asleep faster, and slept longer.
How the Extract Works Inside the Brain
Further experiments revealed how the alkaloid extract worked on a biochemical level. It helped balance neurotransmitters in the brain—chemicals that act like messengers between brain cells. The extract increased the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a calming neurotransmitter, and decreased dopamine (DA), which tends to keep people awake. Interestingly, it also had some effects on acetylcholine (ACh), another brain chemical involved in REM sleep cycles.
The extract’s influence went even deeper. It altered the activity of key receptors and enzymes that interact with neurotransmitters. These included:
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GABRA1: a receptor that promotes sleep by enhancing
GABA’s effect.
-
DRD2: a dopamine receptor associated with wakefulness.
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5-HT1A: a serotonin receptor tied to mood and sleep.
-
AChE: an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, potentially affecting REM sleep.
The alkaloid extract reduced the expression of DRD2 and AChE, potentially promoting more restful sleep by calming overactive brain circuits.
Healing the Brain and Reducing Inflammation
Beyond sleep regulation, the researchers discovered that the NP alkaloid extract also repaired neuronal damage in key brain regions linked to memory and rest, particularly in the hippocampus. Rats with insomnia typically had damaged neurons, but those given the extract had healthier brain cells with higher expression of NeuN (a neuron marker) and reduced expression of GFAP (an indicator of brain inflammation).
Inflammatory markers like IL-1 and TNF-α—which also play roles in sleep regulation—were also influenced by the extract. While the total extract helped restore these inflammation-linked compounds, the alkaloid extract had more complex and less consistent effects, suggesting that its primary benefits come from neurotransmitter modulation rather than immune changes.
Conclusions and Future Applications
The study provides compelling evidence that the total alkaloid extract of Nelumbinis Plumula is a potent natural sleep aid. It not only shortened sleep latency and prolonged sleep duration in an insomnia rat model but also targeted multiple biological pathways related to sleep regulation, including neurotransmitter levels, receptor activity, and even neuron repair. This multifaceted mechanism suggests that NP alkaloids may offer a safer and more effective alternative to synthetic sleeping pills, which often come with side effects and risk of dependency.
Future research is needed to isolate the individual alkaloids responsible for the sedative effects and to study their safety and efficacy in human trials. Still, the findings mark an exciting step toward natural, plant-based treatments for insomnia that are both scientifically backed and rooted in traditional medicine.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/26/8/3684
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