Concerning the wound-healing properties of Sphagnum holocellulose: the Maillard reaction in pharmacology

Effects of Water-Ethanol Extracts from Four Sphagnum Species on Gene Expression of Selected Enzymes in Normal Human Dermal Fibroblasts and Their Antioxidant Properties

Mosses (Bryophyta), particularly species of the genus Sphagnum, which have been used for centuries for the treatment of skin diseases and damage, are still not explored enough in terms of their use in cosmetics. The purpose of this study was to determine the antioxidant properties of water-ethanol extracts from four selected species of the genus Sphagnum (S. girgenshonii Russow, S. magellanicum Brid., S. palustre L., and S. squarrosum Crome) and their impact on the expression of genes encoding key enzymes for the functioning of the skin. In this study, the effects of Sphagnum extracts on the expression of genes encoding tyrosinase, collagenase, elastase, hyaluronidase and hyaluronic acid synthase in human dermal fibroblasts were determined for the first time in vitro. The extracts inhibited tyrosinase gene expression and showed antioxidant activity. The experiment showed an increase in the expression of some genes encoding collagenase (MMP1) or hyaluronidase (HYAL2, HYAL3 and HYAL4) and a decrease in the hyaluronan synthase (HAS1, HAS2 and HAS3) genes expression by the tested extracts. The obtained results suggest that using extracts from the tested Sphagnum species in anti-aging cosmetics does not seem beneficial. Further studies are needed to clarify their impact on the skin.

Four Centuries of Medicinal Mosses and Liverworts in European Ethnopharmacy and Scientific Pharmacy: A Review

(1) Medicinal use of bryophytes dates to ancient times, but it has always been marginal due to their small size, difficult identification, lack of conspicuous organs which would attract attention (flowers, fruits) and insipid taste of the herb. The earliest testimonies of their medical use come from the 1500s. The interest in medicinal bryophytes diminished considerably in the 1880s, except for Sphagnum spp., which became a source of dressing material. The second half of the 20th century saw the revival of the study of bryophyte chemistry. (2) Historical printed sources from 1616 to 1889 were queried. Bryophyte species found were taxonomically identified and presented against the background of their confirmed properties and ecology. The study was supplemented with historical vs. modern ethnomedicinal data. (3) In 26 publications, 28 species were identified. Modern usage was known for 10 of them. Medicinal properties of 16 species were confirmed. (4) Species of wide geographical distribution range were (or are still being) used in local folk medicines. Historical ethnobiological and ethnopharmaceutical uses of them are sometimes convergent with their confirmed properties, mostly external (as antimicrobial or cytotoxic remedies).

Central European ethnomedical and officinal uses of peat, with special emphasis on the Tołpa peat preparation (TPP): An historical review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Medical or hygienic uses of peat mosses dates back to the 18th century. Peat was used externally (as poultices) in the early 19th century. The peat preparation invented by Stanisław Tołpa (Tołpa peat preparation, TPP) was patented in Poland in 1991; its concept had emerged in the 1980s. It raised high therapeutic expectations still being researched in the early 1990s. Profound expectations for peat, a natural product well known in Central European (and Polish) spas (for medicated baths and poultices), earned Tołpa's preparation great renown before any actual benefits (internal actions) were scientifically confirmed.

AIM OF THE REVIEW

We study the origins of medical interest in peat in Polish science against the background of the historical ethnopharmacy of peat and Sphagnum moss in Central Europe. It is aimed at shedding a new light on the history of TPP, its connections with local ethnopharmacological traditions and inspirations for local medical studies on peat products and peat-derived drugs of the 1980s and early 1900s.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The literature on peat baths was found and reviewed including the information and data about the studies of TPP from published though unknown sources as well as from Polish patents, unpublished typescripts, press interviews and reports.

RESULTS

Tołpa's research team missed the historical data about external and topical actions of Sphagnum peat or its preparations which were published in the 19th- and early 20th-century. This is strange because folk medicine based on peat emanated eastwards from ethnic Austria along the Vistula river and the Carpathians. Tołpa ignored balneotherapeutic (external) applications as well as the action of sphagnan from Sphagnum herb, and rejected this kind of peat as scientifically not promising, based on a single biological test on plants. The concept of an active principle in peat or its preparations evolved, and speculation concerning its nature was not followed by adequate basic research. The active principle was not found. Results concerning plant meristem growth were too readily applied in animal production and finally human medicine. The natural ingredient in TPP production was never defined botanically. Anti-cancer properties ascribed to the TPP on the basis of bio-stimulation tests stirred powerful social emotions.

CONCLUSIONS

Topical peat cure originated in Austria in about 1820. It evolved as a whole branch of Central European balneotherapy which had been completely scientifically described by the 1950s. At that time an undefined peat extract was once successfully used in ear infections in paediatrics. Stanisław Tołpa's research project to find any internal application of peat ignored the achievements of ethnobiology, balneotherapy, surgery and otorhinolaryngology known at that time. His strenuous and insistent efforts, carried out in isolation, crucially failed pre-clinical and clinical tests in any branch of his therapy. Three commercial drugs were allowed for 3 years before substantial clinical proofs of peat efficacy were achieved. Social impact was high and resulted in the birth of the Polish legend of Tołpa's marvellous drug.

Possible evidence for care and treatment in the Tyrolean Iceman

The Tyrolean Iceman is the world's oldest glacier mummy. He was found in September 1991 in the Italian part of the Ötztal Alps. Since his discovery a variety of morphological, radiological and molecular analyses have been performed that revealed detailed insights into his state of health. Despite the various pathological conditions found in the Iceman, little is known about possible forms of care and treatment during the Copper Age in Northern Italy. A possible approach to this topic is the presence of tattoos on the mummified body. In previous work, it was already believed that the tattoos were administered as a kind of treatment for his lower back pain and degenerative joint disease of his knees, hip and wrist. In other studies, the tattoos of the Iceman have been related to an early form of acupuncture. We carefully re-evaluated the various health issues of the Iceman, including joint diseases, gastrointestinal problems and arterial calcifications and compared them to the location and number of tattoos. Together with the finding of medically effective fungi and plants, such as the birch polypore or fern in his equipment and intestines, we suggest that care and treatment was already common during the Iceman's time.

Tangled history of the European uses of Sphagnum moss and sphagnol

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Sphagnum mosses and peat could have been utilized as wound dressings for centuries, however reliable data on this subject are ambiguous; sometimes even no distinction between peat moss (Sphagnum spp.) and peat is made or these terms become confused. The first scientific account on surgical use of peat comes from 1882: a peat digger who successfully, by himself and in the way unknown to the then medicine, cured an open fracture of his forearm with peat. The peat, and very soon the peat moss itself (which is the major constituent of peat) drew attention of the 19th-century surgeons.

AIMS OF THE WORK

We search for reliable information on: (1) inspirations for Sphagnum usage for medical purposes and its beginnings in the 19th century, (2) substances or products named sphagnol and their connections with (1); (3) on the origin of this name, (4) and on the occurrence of this name in medical sources.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We have identified and studied published sources on the uses of peat-based and Sphagnum-based preparations and products of any processing level (including herbal stock, distillate, isolated pure or impure active principle, or a mixture of such) in surgery, pharmacy or cosmetics. A special attention was paid to the name sphagnol, which appeared many a time, in more than one context since 1899. Source publications were critically analysed from the taxonomical, pharmacognostical and ethnopharmacological points of view. Gathered data were cross-checked with the modern knowledge of the biologically active principles of Sphagnum and the prospects of their medical use.

RESULTS

The application of peat in surgery started 1882. The use of peat moss as dressings was developed in the 1880's. It returned to surgical practice during WW1. The name sphagnol has two meanings: (1) A chemical substance isolated from the cell walls of Sphagnum mosses in 1899. A post-1950 research showed it to be a mixture of phenols dominated by sphagnum acid. (2) A product of dry distillation of peat contains solid and liquid fractions and was applied in skin diseases due to antiseptic properties. It was added to ointments and medicated soaps manufactured up to the late 1960's. Today none of these two sphagnols is in use.

CONCLUSIONS

Surgical application of peat had an ethnopharmacological origin: a case of wound treatment with peat as a remedy rather than a dressing (1880, published 1882) shortly shifted the surgeons' attention to peat moss as an absorptive dressing. The 1880's tests of antiseptic properties of peat and peat moss failed, the sterilization methods overrode the physiological effects of Sphagnum dressings. Sphagnan, a polysaccharide from Sphagnum cell walls, discovered 1983, inhibits microbial growth, tans the collagen and removes ammonia from microbial environments. Portions of raw peat could be sterile. The isolation of sphagnol (1899) from Sphagnum cell walls was not inspired by old surgery. Main component of sphagnol, the sphagnic acid, was used clinically during WW2, but was proved a weak antimicrobial agent. A homonymous name sphagnol appeared independently for a product of dry distillation of peat, introduced commercially probably about 1899, too, which gave rise to confusions: a) the commercial, "distilled" sphagnol was not the crystalline principle of Sphagnum cell walls. 2) the "distilled" sphagnol was hardly defined technologically or pharmacologically, never standardized in terms of the substrate (a variety of peat rather than Sphagnum herb) and the production process. This sphagnol, resembling pitch or tar, was an additive to medicated soaps and ointments for skin treatment and care. It must have been a low-scale product although advertised worldwide. Neither sphagnum acid nor sphagnan are used medicinally today.