Saw palmetto

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Saw palmetto
Serenoa repens USDA1.jpg

Saw palmetto ( Serenoa repens )

Systematics
Monocots
Commelinids
Order : Palm- like arecales
Family : Palm family (Arecaceae)
Genre : Serenoa
Type : Saw palmetto
Scientific name of the  genus
Serenoa
Hook.f.
Scientific name of the  species
Serenoa repens
( W.Bartram ) Small

The saw palmetto ( Serenoa repens ) is a species of palm that is native to the southeastern United States . It is the only species in the genus Serenoa . Phytopharmaceuticals against benign prostatic hyperplasia are obtained from its fruits .

features

The saw palmetto is a hermaphrodite fan palm . It has multiple stems, grows bush-shaped and reaches heights of one to three meters. The trunks are underground or prostrate and creeping on the surface. They rarely stand upright. The trunks are covered with the perennial leaf sheaths. The palm is reinforced.

From axillary buds either inflorescences or vegetative side shoots develop.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 36.

leaves

Toothed petiole

The leaves are induplicate, fan-shaped and remain dead on the plant (marzescence). The leaf sheath enlarges into a mat of dark brown fibers. The petiole is flat, can be slightly rounded on the top, rounded or angular on the underside. The edge of the petiole is covered with numerous small teeth. The adaxial hastula is conspicuous, rounded and membranous, the abaxial is semicircular, often torn and also membranous.

The leaf blade is approximately circular and evenly divided up to more than half into narrow, stiff, short two-part, simply folded segments. The blade is glabrous with the exception of scattered scales along the ribs.

Inflorescences

inflorescence

The inflorescences are between the leaves (interfoliar). They are upright and about the same length as the leaves, but often hidden by them. They are three to rarely four-fold branched. The inflorescence stalk is slender, flattened and rather short. The cover sheet is tubular, two-keeled and ends in two triangular lobes. There is a bract on the peduncle that may also be missing. It is tightly sheathed and hairy. The inflorescence axis is longer than the stem. There are several bracts that are similar to the one on the stem, but get smaller and smaller towards the axis tip. The lateral axes of the first order have a short, double-keeled cover, the following bracts are small and membranous. The flower-bearing axes (rachillae) are protruding, densely hairy and have small bracts in a spiral arrangement that carry single or paired flowers.

blossoms

The flowers are white, fragrant and 4 to 5 mm in size. They are hermaphroditic and have a tubular calyx made up of three triangular lobes. The crown is tubular too, but two-thirds of its length is divided into three valvate lobes. The six stamens are at the mouth of the corolla tube. The anthers are elliptical, dorsifix and latrors . The three carpels are free in the lower area in the pen region linked and terminate in a small scar . The ovule is anatropic.

The pollen is ellipsoidal and mostly slightly asymmetrical. The germ opening is a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 31 to 44 microns.

Fruits and seeds

The fruit is an ellipsoidal to almost spherical stone fruit . It becomes two centimeters long. When ripe it is dark blue to black. The unripened carpels are basal, the remnants of the scar are apical. The exocarp is smooth, the mesocarp is fleshy and has no fibers. The endocarp is thin and slightly cartilaginous. The seed stands basal and carries an elongated raphe . The endosperm is homogeneous, but has flat lateral invaginations of the seed coat. The embryo stands laterally near the base, opposite the raphe.

ingredients

The main components of the fruits are phytosterols and fatty oil with free fatty acids . In addition, flavonoids , an acidic polysaccharide and essential ("volatile") oil were detected.

The fatty acids of the lipid fraction include medium-chain ( caproic acid , caprylic acid , lauric acid , myristic acid ) as well as palmitic acid and oleic acid . They are mostly free, but also as ethyl esters or acylglycerols .

Free β-sitosterol dominates among the phytosterols , along with its fatty acid esters and glycosides.

Distribution and locations

Saw palmetto stand

The saw palmetto is restricted to the southeastern United States. In Florida, it is widely used around the edges of their occurrence, which until Charleston County ( South Carolina ) and South Mississippi enough, it is rare. It occurs in the undergrowth on poorly drained, pine-covered Flatwood soils, on well-drained, poor Flatwood soils and in the undergrowth of sandy-pine forests.

The saw palmetto is often the dominant woody species in arid prairies and deforested pine forests of south Florida. It may have become more common due to irregular fires, as well as large-scale drainage. It often occurs together with the wood plants Ilex glabra , Myrica cerifera , Lyonia ferruginea and various oak species.

In the entire distribution area, the saw palmetto can be the dominant species in the understory of Pinus elliottii and Pinus palustris forests.

All plant communities in which the saw palmetto is found are adapted to frequent fires during the growing season and can withstand periodic droughts and floods.

Systematics

The genus Serenoa is placed within the family Arecaceae in the subfamily Coryphoideae , tribe Trachycarpeae , but not assigned to any subtribe here.

In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , only the species Serenoa repens is recognized.

The genus is named after the American botanist Sereno Watson (1826-1892).

A more frequently mentioned, older synonym for the species is Sabal serrulata (Michx.) Schult.f.

use

Saw palmetto fruits are used medicinally alone or in combination with other drugs . The drug consists of the incompletely dried ripe fruits (Sabalis serrulatae fructus), which according to the requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia must contain at least 11% total fatty acids. The following requirements apply to the saw palmetto extract (Sabalis serrulatae extractum): at least 80% fatty acids, at least 23% lauric acid , at least 0.20% total sterols and at least 0.10% β-sitosterol .

The Committee for Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) evaluated thick extracts from saw palmetto fruits in a monograph in 2015 on the basis of the available clinical studies. The committee differentiated thick extracts with a drug-extract ratio of 7-11: 1 (extraction agent: hexane), which was awarded "well-established use", and 7.5-14.3: 1 (extraction agent: ethanol), to which only "traditional use" was granted. The former thick extracts can be used for the symptomatic treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia , while the ethanolic extracted thick extracts are approved for the relief of symptoms of the lower urinary tract in connection with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

In Germany, combinations with a dry extract of nettle root are permitted for urination problems in benign prostatic hyperplasia (stage I-II according to Alken). Here a superiority over placebo could be clinically confirmed. The frequency of nocturia evacuating the bladder at night could be reduced as well as with common synthetic preparations.

Dietary supplements for men are also made from saw palmetto.

There is no scientific evidence for the effects of saw palmetto extract against hair loss, prostate cancer , prostatitis and hypofunction of the urinary bladder (status 2010).

The entire plant was used in many ways by the North American natives, the fruits also as food. A medical use cannot be proven here.

A glauke form of the saw palmetto is used as an ornamental plant.

supporting documents

  • John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline M. Harley, Carl E. Lewis: Genera Palmarum. The Evolution and Classification of Palms . Second edition, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2008, ISBN 978-1-84246-182-2 , pp. 274-276.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Scott Zona: Arecaceae . In: Flora of North America , Volume 22, p. 111. (online) , accessed May 22, 2010.
  2. ↑ T. Dingermann, K. Hiller, G. Schneider, I. Zündorf: Schneider drug drugs. 5th edition, Elsevier 2004, ISBN 3-8274-1481-4 . Page 241.
  3. ↑ E. Teuscher: Biogenic Medicines. 5th edition, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1997, ISBN 3-8047-1482-X . Page 137.
  4. ↑ K. Hardtke et al. (Ed.): Commentary on the European Pharmacopoeia Ph. Eur. 5.0, saw palmetto fruits. Loose-leaf collection, 23rd delivery 2006, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart.
  5. ↑ Serenoa repens . Alternative Medicine Review, Volume 3, Issue 3, 1998, pp. 227-229. (pdf)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , (pdf; 531 kB) ( Memento from December 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.altmedrev.com  
  6. ↑ a b c d George W. Tanner, J. Jeffrey Mullahey: Saw-palmetto: An Ecologically and Economically Important Native Palm. Circular WEC-109. University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service 1996. (pdf; 44 kB) ( Memento from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Serenoa. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  8. ↑ European Pharmacopoeia 8.0, Monograph Saw Palmetto Fruit, 07/2012: 1848.
  9. ↑ European Pharmacopoeia 8.0, Monograph Saw Palmetto Extract, 01/2014: 2579.
  10. ↑ HMPC: European Union herbal monograph on Serenoa repens (W. Bartram) Small, fructus. EMA / HMPC / 280079/2013, November 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ Robert Fürst, Ilse Zündorf: HMPC monograph: Extracts from saw palmetto fruits. In: Pharmazeutische Zeitung , 29 August 2019.
  12. ^ Theodor Dingermann : Compendium Phytopharmaka. 7th edition. Deutscher Apotheker Verlag, Stuttgart 2015. ISBN 978-3-7692-6211-7 . P. 68f.
  13. ↑ Matthias Oelke et al .: Fixed-dose combination PRO 160/120 of sabal and urtica extracts improves nocturia in men with LUTS suggestive of BPH: Re-evaluation of four controlled clinical studies. World Journal of Urology 32 (2014), pp. 1149-1154. doi : 10.1007 / s00345-014-1338-x
  14. ^ Matthias Oelke et al .: Nocturia: State of the art and critical analysis of current assessment and treatment strategies. World Journal of Urology 32 (2014), pp. 1109-1117. doi : 10.1007 / s00345-014-1396-0
  15. ^ John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline M. Harley, Carl E. Lewis: Genera Palmarum. The Evolution and Classification of Palms . Second edition, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2008, ISBN 978-1-84246-182-2 , pp. 274-276.
  16. ↑ Saw Palmetto on Medline plus, accessed May 22, 2010.
  17. ↑ Tobias Niedenthal: The saw palmetto: From useful plant and food to recognized medicinal plant. In: Journal of Phytotherapy , 2017; 38: 235-239. doi : 10.1055 / s-0043-115589

further reading

  • Bradley C. Bennett, Judith R. Hicklin: Uses of saw palmetto ( Serenoa repens , Arecaceae) in Florida , Economic Botany, Vol. 52, 1998, pp. 381-393. doi : 10.1007 / BF02862068

Web links

Commons : Serenoa repens  - album with pictures, videos and audio files