Warming to a Cold War Herb
Soviet secret finds its way west
Brian Vastag
Zakir Ramazanov first encountered Rhodiola rosea in 1979 as a Soviet
soldier
in Afghanistan. A comrade often received boxes full of the yellow-flowered
mountain herb from his home in Siberia and would prepare and share a
sweet-smelling tea from the root. Ramazanov found that the drink seemed to
quicken his hiking and speed his recovery after a taxing mission.
HILLSIDE HABITAT. Rhodiola rosea (yellow flowers at left) grows
in the
Altai Mountains of Siberia. The plant thrives in cold climates at high
altitudes. Brown
After Ramazanov left the army, he forgot about the Siberian herb. Despite
having a good job, he felt depressed, and flashbacks from the war
interfered
with his daily tasks. After trying various drugs and natural remedies to
ease his symptoms, he happened upon a lecture about rhodiola. He learned
that the Soviets had been studying the herb since the 1940s, feeding it to
Olympic athletes and cosmonauts. Government scientists had noted that
rhodiola boosted the body's response to stress.
If it was good enough for weight lifters and space travelers, it was good
enough for him, Ramazanov thought. He began taking rhodiola extracts, and
after a month his symptoms lifted. He had more energy during the day and
could finally sleep at night. The horrific war images faded and his
concentration improved.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, Ramazanov moved to New York State, began
translating Russian rhodiola research, and started a small business to
im****t the herb. A few years later, Richard Brown, a psychiatrist at
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, heard about
rhodiola
from two of his patients. They independently mentioned that the herb, sold
as a dietary supplement in the United States by a company affiliated with
Ramazanov, had eased their depression.
Brown tracked down Ramazanov's company and wrote to him. The two began a
correspondence that gave Brown enough confidence in the safety of rhodiola
to try it himself. "Almost immediately, my mind seemed clearer," he
says. "I
was more energetic and less stressed. After a few days, I noticed I
recovered from exercise more quickly."
Brown recommended the herb to his wife, Patricia Gerbarg, also a
psychiatrist, who was housebound from a debilitating bout with Lyme
disease.
After 10 days, Gerbarg re****ted feeling much better. Her memory rebounded,
and she had enough energy to again play chess with her son-and beat him, a
rare event. "I have my life back," she declared. Since then, Brown and
Gerbarg have recommended the herb to hundreds of patients, often in
conjunction with standard antidepressants.
Much of the old Soviet research on the herb remains locked away in Russian
language journals. But over the past decade a growing body of new research
published in English tentatively sup****ts the results of early Soviet
research. Laboratory and animal studies show that the herb may inhibit
cancer cells, protect healthy cells from toxins, and correct enzyme
imbalances associated with diabetes. In addition, four trials with human
volunteers show that rhodiola extracts can boost mental performance,
reduce
fatigue, and ease depression.
Russian revolution
Growing at high altitudes from Scandinavia to Siberia, rhodiola has for
centuries been a part of folk medicine among diverse native groups.
Documented medicinal use reaches back at least to A.D. 77, when a
physician
to Roman legionnaires recommended it for headaches. In the 18th century,
Linnaeus gave the herb its scientific name.
Soviet-government scientists Nikolai Lazarev and Israel Brekhman knew of
this traditional use when, after World War II, they launched an extensive
program to boost Soviet competitiveness in athletics and other demanding
fields. The scientists tested nearly 200 herbal folk remedies and found 5,
including rhodiola, particularly intriguing. They called the plants
adaptogens for their ability to foster increased resistance to stress
and to
boost physical and mental performance. Unlike amphetamines, which the
postwar Soviets also tested, these plants weren't addictive, and users
didn't "crash" or suffer a rebound period of profound fatigue.
The adaptogens performed well on a pivotal test invented by the Soviets,
an
endurance swim for rats. When plopped into water, a rat will swim steadily
for 10 to 15 minutes. Then it will float, paddling only as needed to keep
from drowning. When the Soviet scientists gave rats rhodiola, the animals
swam 35 percent to 59 percent longer. A modified version of the test is
still used by academic researchers and drug companies to screen for
potential new antidepressants.
By 1969, Soviet scientists had amassed enough evidence for the Ministry of
Health to recommend rhodiola in its official list of medicines. Use of the
herb took off.
"The Soviets were really invested in it," says Georg Wikman of the Swedish
Herbal Institute in Göteborg, who studies the herb. "There must be 300 to
400 re****ts published in quite good Russian-language journals."
Much of the Soviet research on the herb remains untranslated or locked
away
because authorities considered adaptogen research a "top military secret,"
Ramazanov maintained before his death last year. Nevertheless, he had
translated some key findings by that time. In animals, the herb lowers
production of the stress hormone cortisol. It acts as an antioxidant,
helping to eliminate from the body the oxygen radicals that damage cells.
And in muscles, it increases production of adenosine triphosphate, the
molecule that serves as cellular gasoline.
Trials in people, while not up to Western standards, hinted that rhodiola
could alleviate depression, erectile dysfunction and premature
ejaculation,
and chronic listlessness.
Other, higher quality trials suggested that the herb could boost athletic
performance. A trial run by Victor Baranov at Moscow's Institute for Space
Medicine in the 1990s found that after taking rhodiola, inactive adults
performed just as well as trained athletes in aerobic tests. During that
experiment, researchers randomly assigned volunteers to take either the
herb
or a placebo, and participants, as well as their testers, were blind to
which was which. Around the same time, another such randomized,
double-blind
study of 42 male biathletes re****ted improved target shooting in the group
that took the herb. Also, the extract seemed to speed recovery of the
athletes' circulatory systems. Thirty minutes after the skiing part of the
biathlon, the hearts of those who took the extract were beating at 105
percent of prerace rates, compared with 129 percent of precompetition
rates
among athletes who took a placebo.
In the late 1980s, researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences in
Moscow,
home to much of the adaptogen work, discovered that three compounds found
only in the rosea type of Rhodiola-there are at least 200 related
species-were responsible for much of the plant's activity. They dubbed
these
compounds rosavins, and in 1989 the Soviet government declared that all
rhodiola extracts must contain at least 3 percent rosavins. Dietary
supplement makers throughout the world still hew to this standard.
Even before the discovery of rosavins, Soviet adaptogen research
culminated
with ADAPT, a mixture of extracts from R. rosea, a species of ginseng,
and a
berry called Schizandra chinensis. Hoping for a synergistic effect, the
Soviets gave ADAPT to Olympic athletes, according to Ramazanov's
self-published material.
The Soviets then decided to test ADAPT in their space program, a plan that
enlisted Wikman and the Swedish Herbal Institute. Wikman and the Soviet
scientists gave ADAPT to 60 sleep-deprived cosmonaut trainees. "Those
tests
went well," says Wikman. The mixture "had a very clear effect on
mental-work
capacity, problem solving, and short-term memory when the subjects were
really, really tired after staying up for days." The mixture also helped
normalize an elaborate measure of cardiac function in the sleep-deprived
trainees. "So the decision was made to take it up, use it in space,"
Wikman
says.
Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, a physician, took ADAPT daily while commander
of
the Mir space station during his 14-month mission in 1994 and 1995, says
Wikman. Wikman adds that Polyakov credited ADAPT with helping him endure
the
record-length spaceflight.
To the west
About the same time Polyakov was taking herbs in space, Ramazanov was
setting up shop just outside New York City. Working with a
dietary-supplement maker, Ramazanov invested in a small laboratory and
began
im****ting rhodiola. He talked up its benefits whenever he got the chance.
HEALTHFUL HANDFUL. Psychiatrist Richard Brown holds a bunch of
Rhodiola rosea during a 2003 expedition to Siberia. Brown recommends root
extracts of the plant for treating depression and other ailments.
Brown
The message spread, and in 2003, Mark Blumenthal, executive director of
the
American Botanical Council, a trade group based in Austin, Texas,
trumpeted
rhodiola as "the next herbal superstar" in an already lucrative market.
Despite Blumenthal's proclamation, rhodiola hasn't cracked the top 20
herbs
in sales at food and drugstores even though it's widely available.
But Ramazanov's work has drummed up academic interest. Since the turn of
the
century, a growing number of re****ts investigating rhodiola have
appeared in
English-language journals. Several groups of researchers have found
that, in
the laboratory, rhodiola inhibits the spread of bacteria, prevents immune
system damage caused by anticancer drugs, slows the division of cancer
cells, and corrects enzyme irregularities in diabetic mice.
Meanwhile, Wikman and the Swedish Herbal Institute, which makes a rhodiola
extract called SHR-5, have continued laboratory and human tests. In 2000,
they re****ted that SHR-5 protects snail embryos from heat, copper, and
oxidative stress. When given the herb extract, fewer of the embryos died
after exposure to these stressors than did embryos not given the extract.
Also in 2000, Wikman and his colleagues in Russia published results from a
randomized, double-blind trial of university students who took SHR-5 at
the
end of a semester. Students taking the herb for 20 days fared better on
measures of fatigue and mental performance than did students who took a
placebo. Another study published in 2000 found an antifatigue effect of
the
herb among 56 physicians working night ****fts.
In 2003, the Swedish-Russian group published a study of 100 male military
cadets who took a single dose of SHR-5. After working all night, 40 cadets
received a low dose of the extract, 40 a high dose, and 20 a placebo. The
cadets taking either dose of the extract scored higher on a battery of
concentration and mental-performance tests than did cadets taking the
placebo.
Most recently, in the September-October Nordic Journal of Psychiatry,
Wikman
and coworkers in Armenia re****t a randomized, double-blind trial in people
with mild-to-moderate depression. For 6 weeks, two groups of 30 patients
took either of two doses of SHR-5 while a third group took a placebo.
People
taking either dose of the extract re****ted fewer symptoms on standard
depression questionnaires at the end of the study than did those who took
the placebo.
"I've been using it as an antidepressant for years now," says Columbia
University's Brown. "But it's nice to have that validated in a clinical
trial."
Incomplete picture
Despite the increased academic interest in rhodiola, Wikman's team, which
has a vested interest in its SHR-5 product, remains the only group
sponsoring clinical trials. And getting a handle on exactly what rhodiola
does inside the body is daunting. "Scientists have yet to advance a single
theory that accounts for the diverse benefits of adaptogens," says Brown.
Whereas prescription drugs typically contain a single compound that
works in
a specific way, herbs contain many active compounds that act on the body
via
different, often subtle, mechanisms. Scientists have identified at least a
dozen active components in rhodiola, including the rosavins and known
antioxidants. Many more may remain unidentified, says Brown.
Dietary supplement companies in the United States have little incentive to
invest in research, as the Food and Drug Administration doesn't require
clinical trials for dietary supplements. Standards for marketing herbal
products in Canada and Europe are more stringent. The National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of
Health in Bethesda, Md., hasn't funded any rhodiola research.
"I think it's a valuable medicine, and I'd love to see more research,"
says
Brown, who recommends various brands to his patients and who doesn't have
a
financial interest in any rhodiola product. "But I don't see much clinical
research ever happening in the United States. Drug companies just aren't
interested, and the [supplement] companies can't afford it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada's Long-Term Commitment
Market potential lures investment
Across the plains of Alberta, plots of rhodiola await harvesting. In 2004,
the Canadian provincial government launched a program to commercialize the
plant. Fifty growers received seedlings, and some 50 acres are now being
grown.
It takes 3 to 5 years for the roots to develop sufficient concentrations
of
active ingredients for harvesting, making the project a long-term
commitment, says ****rzad Chunara, marketing manager at Alberta Agriculture
and Food in Edmonton. The province has pledged $750,000 for the project
through 2010. "We chose it because ... the market for it looks promising,"
says Chunara.
The plant is ideally adapted to Alberta's harsh winters. The province
earlier tried to commercialize Echinacea, but more than half the plants
succumbed to the cold. More than 90 percent of rhodiola plants survived
their first three winters, a testament to the species' near-Arctic
origins.
After processing the roots, University of Alberta scientists will conduct
a
small trial in human volunteers, says Chunara. The Canadian government's
herbal medicine agency requires such tests before it will certify any
products containing the herb.
Bertalam Galambosi, a Finnish-government agronomist who's spent 15 years
working small test plots of rhodiola, says that projects such as Alberta's
are crucial to the long-term viability of the plant. Some 20 to 30 tons of
dry root are ex****ted from Russia each year, he says, and the country
recently restricted harvesting. Galambosi is trying to improve growing,
harvesting, and processing techniques.
"It's very young as a domesticated plant, and there are lots of open
questions, such as how to shorten this 5-year cycle and how to mechanize
harvesting. But over the long term, with demand continuing to climb,
cultivation will be the only source."
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