What Is Polygala Good For? Anxiety and Depression

What is Polygala good for? It’s used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to provide all-natural support for anxiety.

Feeling some anxiety is often part of day-to-day life. One day you may wake up feeling some amount of uncertainty during stressful circumstances like when making a presentation, meeting new colleagues, interviewing for a job, or taking an examination. While a little anxiety may help you to identify the potential dangers and motivate you to keep pushing, it can turn into a disorder when it occurs frequently. The truth is that many people experience panic disorders, anxiety disorders, and phobias that can significantly interfere with their normal daily routine and personal lives.

Dealing with anxiety can be extremely challenging. If you have experienced anxiety disorders, you might consider trying natural remedies such as Polygala tenuifolia to help treat your anxiety.

Bioactive Compounds in Polygala

What is Polygala good for? Known as the “will strengthener,” it’s thought to relax the soul, calm the heart, and ease restlessness and anxiety. Also commonly known as Yuan Zhi, its adherents believe that it improves mood and creative thinking, enhances dreaming, and enhances manifested ideas.

Polygala may help to highlight the bioactive compounds found in the plant that attribute to its medicinal value. Polygala tenuifolia is one of the most common medicinal herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. For more than 1,000 years, the plant has been used to treat a range of diseases including inflammation, anxiety, and memory loss.

The plant contains the following bioactive compounds:

• Onjisaponin A, B, C, D, E, F, G
• Tenuifolin
• 2beta, 27-dihydroxy-23-carboxyoleanolic acid
• 3-beta-O-glucoside
• Tenuigenin A
• Tenuigenin B
• Onjixanthone
• 1, 6-dihydroxy-3, 7-dimethoxy xanthone
• 1-hydroxy-3, 6, 7-trimethoxy xanthonel
• 5-anhydro-D-sorbitol
• N-acetyl-D-glucosamine
• 3, 4, 5-trimethoxy-cinnamic acid
• Polygalitol
• Tenuidine

These bioactive compounds release phytochemicals that often irritate the mucus lining of the stomach, resulting in higher lung secretion amounts. This could help to explain the mechanism of action behind the plant’s expectorant properties, which may help to loosen phlegm during coughing.

Other common names for the plant include:

• Yuan Zhi
• Seneca
• Chinese Senega
• Mountain Polygala
• Polygala de Sénéca
• Polygala glomerata
• Polygala japonica
• Polygala reinii

What Is Polygala Good For?

• Anxiety Relief

Polygala contains adaptogenic properties that help our bodies to combat stress. Stress can result in the malfunctioning of our bodies during traumatic conditions. The extract offers mood support and may help to ease anxiety. According to traditional Chinese medicine, this herb balances the heart and kidney’s Qi, which helps to improve the mood and offers emotional stability. Buddhist Monks have been using it during meditation for centuries.

According to a study published in Phytotherapy Research Journal, the herb enhances neural stem cell proliferation that helps to treat insomnia, dementia and neurosis. Promoting the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells helps to support the growth of new brain cells.

• Anti-Depressant Properties

Polygala tenuifolia exerts a range of neuropsychiatric effects that offer antidepressant activities. The plant’s extract helps to protect against NMDA neurotoxicity (N-methyl D-aspartate). It also induces neurotropic factor expression derived from the brain. This activity attributes to the plant’s modulatory properties in glutamatergic synapses. The herb’s bioactive compounds reduce hippocampal GluR1 serine-845 to exert antidepressant properties.

Learn More

Polygala has stood the test of time and is increasingly becoming a popular all-natural option for providing mood support and anxiety support.

We sell Polygala in 100 gram sizes (50 servings) as OM! Mood Support. We also sell it in larger sizes (200-1,000 grams). To learn more, a good place to start is with the Polygala FAQ.

Read the FAQ Buy Polygala Buy OM!