Abstract
An annual herbaceous and hairy herb, native to the Mediterranean region, but naturalized in other parts of the world, North Africa and Asia Minor; cultivated as an ornamental and medicinal plant, and very widely introduced in most of Europe. In Iranian traditional medicine, the flowers are known to possess sedative property, the leaves are used for their anticonvulsant, bronchodilator, vasodilator, and cardiodepressant properties, and borage seed oil is used for treatment of diseases such as, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart diseases, arthritis and eczema. In many parts of Italy, wild plants are consumed as vegetables, and borage is one of the most commonly used plants in both southern and northern Italy, and also used in local traditional medicine to treat inflammatory diseases. In Mexico, it is also regarded to have nutritional value, and is used to treat gastrointestinal diseases, and respiratory diseases. It is used in Danish folk medicine to treat depression and anxiety, and borage oil is promoted in the United States as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis, diabetic neuropathy, and menopause-related symptoms. Leaves contain small amount of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, rosmarinic acid, officinalioside, actinidioionoside, roseoside, crotalionoside C and kaempferol 3-O-β-d-galactopyranoside, essential oil, fatty acids, and a significant amount of manganese. Mice fed with borage diet ad lib for 12-months showed reversal of age-related inflammatory and senile osteoporosis. Ethanol extract of aerial parts possesses MAO-A inhibitory activity, showed affinity to serotonin transporter, and potential as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Daily administration of hydroethanol extract to patients with moderate asthma, significantly ameliorated cough, dyspnea, wheezing, nocturnal symptoms, and airway hyperresponsiveness, and significantly reduced exacerbation attacks per month.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Al-Khamees WA, Schwartz MD, Alrashdi S, Algren AD, Morgan BW. Status epilepticus associated with borage oil ingestion. J Med Toxicol. 2011;7:154–7.
Andrade-Cetto A. Ethnobotanical study of the medicinal plants from Tlanchinol, Hidalgo. México. J Ethnopharmacol. 2009;25:163–71.
Asadi-Samani M, Bahmani M, Rafieian-Kopaei M. The chemical composition, botanical characteristic and biological activities of Borago officinalis: a review. Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2014;7S1:S22–8.
Bandoniene D, Murkovic M, Venskutonis PR. Determination of rosmarinic acid in sage and borage leaves by high-performance liquid chromatography with different detection methods. J Chromatogr Sci. 2005;43:372–6.
Bandoniene D, Murkovic M. The detection of radical scavenging compounds in crude extract of borage (Borago officinalis L.) by using an on-line HPLC-DPPH method. J Biochem Biophys Methods. 2002;53:45–9.
Baharvand-Ahmadi B, Bahmani M, Tajeddini P, Rafieian-Kopaei M, Naghdi N. An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants administered for the treatment of hypertension. J Renal Inj Prev. 2016;5:123–8.
Conforti F, Sosa S, Marrelli M, et al. In vivo anti-inflammatory and in vitro antioxidant activities of Mediterranean dietary plants. J Ethnopharmacol. 2008;116:144–51.
Foster RH, Hardy G, Alany RG. Borage oil in the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Nutrition. 2010;26:708–18.
Ghirardini MP, Carli M, del Vecchio N, et al. The importance of a taste. A comparative study on wild food plant consumption in twenty-one local communities in Italy. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2007;3:22.
Herrmann M, Joppe H, Schmaus G. Thesinine-4′-O-beta-d-glucoside the first glycosylated plant pyrrolizidine alkaloid from Borago officinalis. Phytochemistry. 2002;60:399–402.
Jäger AK, Gauguin B, Andersen J, Adsersen A, Gudiksen L. Screening of plants used in Danish folk medicine to treat depression and anxiety for affinity to the serotonin transporter and inhibition of MAO-A. J Ethnopharmacol. 2013;145:822–5.
Jaradat NA, Damiri B, Abualhasan MN. Antioxidant evaluation for Urtica urens, Rumex cyprius and Borago officinalis edible wild plants in Palestine. Pak J Pharm Sci. 2016;29(1 Suppl):325–30.
Kast RE. Borage oil reduction of rheumatoid arthritis activity may be mediated by increased cAMP that suppresses tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Int Immunopharmacol. 2001;1:2197–9.
Kim J, Kim H, Jeong do H, et al. Comparative effect of gromwell (Lithospermum erythrorhizon) extract and borage oil on reversing epidermal hyperproliferation in guinea pigs. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2006;70:2086–95.
Leos-Rivas C, Verde-Star MJ, Torres LO, et al. In vitro amoebicidal activity of borage (Borago officinalis) extract on Entamoeba histolytica. J Med Food. 2011;14:866–9.
Lüthy J, Brauchli J, Zweifel U, Schmid P, Schlatter C. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids in medicinal plants of Boraginaceal: Borago officinalis L. and Pulmonaria officinalis L. Pharm Acta Helv. 1984;59:242–6 (German).
Maffè S, Cucchi L, Zenone F, et al. Digitalis must be banished from the table: a rare case of acute accidental digitalis intoxication of a whole family. J Cardiovasc Med (Hagerstown). 2009;10:727–32.
Marrelli M, Loizzo MR, Nicoletti M, Menichini F, Conforti F. In vitro investigation of the potential health benefits of wild Mediterranean dietary plants as antiobesity agents with α-amylase and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities. J Sci Food Agric. 2014;94:2217–24.
Mhamdi B, Aidi Wannes W, Marzouk B. Biochemical evaluation of borage (Borago officinalis) rosette leaves through their essential oil and fatty acid composition. Ital J Biochem. 2007;56:176–9.
Mirsadraee M, Khashkhashi Moghaddam S, Saeedi P, Ghaffari S. Effect of Borago officinalis extract on moderate persistent asthma: a phase two randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Tanaffos. 2016;15:168–74.
Morteza E, Akbari GA, Moaveni P, et al. Compositions of the seed oil of the Borago officinalis from Iran. Nat Prod Res. 2015;29:663–6.
Piccillo GA, Miele L, Mondati E, et al. Anticholinergic syndrome due to ‘Devil’s herb’: when risks come from the ancient time. Int J Clin Pract. 2006;60:492–4.
Renna M, Cocozza C, Gonnella M, Abdelrahman H, Santamaria P. Elemental characterization of wild edible plants from countryside and urban areas. Food Chem. 2015;177:29–36.
Rivera D, Obón C. The ethnopharmacology of Madeira and Porto Santo Islands, a review. J Ethnopharmacol. 1995;46:73–93.
Samy MN, Hamed AN, Sugimoto S, et al. Officinalioside, a new lignan glucoside from Borago officinalis L. Nat Prod Res. 2016;30:967–72.
Shahraki MR, Ahmadimoghadm M, Shahraki AR. The antinociceptive effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Borago Officinalis flower in male rats using formalin test. Basic Clin Neurosci. 2015;6:285–90.
Vacillotto G, Favretto D, Seraglia R, et al. A rapid and highly specific method to evaluate the presence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in Borago officinalis seed oil. J Mass Spectrom. 2013;48:1078–82.
Wauquier F, Barquissau V, Léotoing L, et al. Borage and fish oils lifelong supplementation decreases inflammation and improves bone health in a murine model of senile osteoporosis. Bone. 2012;50:553–61.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Akbar, S. (2020). Borago officinalis L. (Boraginaceae). In: Handbook of 200 Medicinal Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16807-0_46
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16807-0_46
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16806-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16807-0
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)