The Body Calming and Body Vitalizing Effects of <i>Vernonia Amygdalina</i> Leaf Extract and Leaf Powder and their Mechanisms

Abstract

Problem statement: Vernonia amygdalina (V. amygdalina) leaf soup is regarded by the indigenous Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria as their best leafy vegetable soup. Despite the bitterness of the bitter leaf soup, the native eaters of the soup feel very content when they eat pounded carbohydrate foods with it. Oral V. amygdalina leaf extract was taken methodically in this study to examine the generalized effect of oral V. amygdalina leaf intake on the human body. Approach: Vernonia amygdalina leaf extract and leaf powder produced a generalized calming effect on the whole body of the extract-treated human subject. The relaxation effect of leaf extract of V. amygdalina on the skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscles of the subject made the whole body of the subject to function at close to basal metabolic rate, in an efficient, calm and alert manner. Results: V. amygdalina leaf extract produced its calming effects on the body by its action as an inhibitory first messenger that inhibited x2-adrenoceptors of the whole body of the subject by occupation of β3-adreceptors on membranes the body’s cells. Such inhibitory action on α2-adrenoceptors of the body (especially of adipose tissues; smooth, cardiac and skeletal muscles and of tissues of the body involved with control of excess blood sugar) caused the inhibition of the accumulation of cyclic AMP and resulted in a generalized calming effect on the body. V. amygdalina extract acted inhibited α2-adrenoceptors of the body by acting as an inhibitory G-protein on β3 adrenoceptores of the cells of the whole body. Conclusion: This study concludes that the mechanism by which V. amygdalina leaf active principles exert a calming effect on the whole human body is by acting as an inhibitory first messenger that sits on the membrane receptors of body tissues to activate an inhibitory G-protein adenylyl cyclase messenger which causes an inhibition of the accumulation of cyclic AMP at the sites where cyclic AMP accumulation would have resulted in excitatory action. By this inhibitory action V. amygdalina antagonized explosive energy utilization in the various tissues of the body thereby causing a generalized calming of the body.