Researchers have shown that the extract of a fruit used in traditional Korean medicine reduces the bone loss associated with estrogen deficiency.
The fruit, which comes from a shrub known as Rubus Coreanus, is found throughout the south of Korea and has recently been shown to prevent apoptosis and lipid peroxidation.
Working from the hypothesis that Rubus extract might prevent estrogen-related bone loss, Kyu-Shik Jeong (Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea) and colleagues administered various doses of a methanol extract from the fruit, or placebo, to ovariectomized rats.
After 10 weeks of treatment, analysis of bone turnover markers showed that the Rubus extract dose-dependently reduced the bone loss and increases in marrow adiposity associated with ovariectomy and seen in placebo-treated animals. It also greatly inhibited the absorption of trabecular bone induced by ovariectomy.
Further in vitro investigation revealed that the extract contains various factors that improve bone health, such as potassium, magnesium, and Vitamins D and B2, and that it increased osteoblast differentiation and osteoclast apoptosis, and probably has bone-protecting anti-oxidant properties.
Jeong and team note that their work is limited by the size of the data set and needs to be confirmed in humans.
Nevertheless, they say that the findings "are the first to provide direct in vivo evidence of the bone-protecting effect of using Rubus extract for current nutritional and pharmacological requirements to prevent bone loss."
The researchers believe that the extract "is an ideal preventive treatment, characterizing dual regulation of osteoblasts and osteoclasts to maintain the bone turnover rate in postmenopausal osteoporosis."
The results are published in the journal Menopause.