Conclusions

Yucca schidigera is a medicinal plant which may have beneficial effects in the prevention and treatment of arthritis. Active components of yucca include steroidal saponins and polyphenolics such as resveratrol and yuccaols. Saponins may have anti-arthritic effects associated with their anti-protozoal activity. Yucca polyphenolics may have several roles in anti-arthritic activity. They inhibit NFkB, a transcription factor which stimulates iNOS, an inducible enzyme which produces the inflammatory agent nitric oxide. Yucca phenolics also are antioxidants and free-radical scavengers, which may aid in suppressing reactive oxygen species (ROS) that stimulate inflammatory responses. Folk medicine and anecdotal reports suggest that whole yucca plant powder aids in prevention and treatment of arthritis. Further studies on the anti-arthritic effects of yucca are warranted.

References

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PR Cheeke^1 ,2 , S Piacente³ and W Oleszek⁴

1Department of Animal Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA
2Desert King International, 7024 Manya Circle, San Diego, CA 92154, USA
3Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Salerno, via Ponte Don Melillo-84084, Fisciano, Salerno, Italy
4Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation, ul. Czartoryskich 8, 24100 Pulawy, Poland

Journal of Inflammation 2006, 3:6     doi:10.1186/1476-9255-3-6

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.journal-inflammation.com/content/3/1/6

© 2006 Cheeke et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Competing interest

PRC is a consultant to Desert King International (DKI), a privately-held company which produces and markets yucca extracts and yucca powder as commodities. He has no equity interest in this company. SP and WO have no relationships with DKI.

Authors contribution

PRC wrote the paper.

SP provided Figures 3 and 4, and the discussion in the paper associated with these figures.

WO provided Figures 1 and 2, and the discussion in the paper associated with these figures. He also developed the collaboration with SP, and collectively they demonstrated the role of yucca phenolics as inhibitors of NFkB and iNOS production.

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