Coleus is a plant that has been used since ancient times in Ayurvedic and Hindu traditional medicine. The root portion has been traditionally used to treat colic, congestive heart failure, convulsions, eczema, hypertension, insomnia, painful urination and respiratory disorders.
also provides therapeutic benefit in angina, asthma, psoriasis and prevention of cancer metastases.
Nutrients & Benefits
Cosmetics: Forskolin when in high pure form 95%, increases isoform selectivity via acting on adenylyl cyclase to enhance the intracellular levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP). The mechanism of increasing and maintaining lean body mass is link to the availability of cyclic AMP. By facilitating hormonal action, cyclic AMP may control the thermogenic response of the body to food, increase the utilization of body fat and enhance the metabolic rate of the body.
Skin problems: Coleus oil is useful in topical preparations, due to its antimicrobial properties. Coleus oil is particularly effective against propionibacterium acnes, the microorganism responsible for acne, and it has been found active against other microorganism known to be responsible for skin infections and eruptions.
Antioxidant: Forskolin shows high amount of polyphenols and higher antioxidant activity. Leaf extract of this plant exhibited significantly high amount of total polyphenols, flavonols and flavones and high antioxidant activity. Coleus can be used as an important source of phenolic compounds with significantly high antioxidant activity (Rasineni et al., 2008).
Weight Loss: As we mentioned, forskolin does have promising results in its ability to prevent weight gain in already overweight or obese people. Used in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, it can be used to help manage a healthy weight.
This "power" herb has an active ingredient in it called forskolin. It has been used in ayruvedic medicine for many years. Forskolin's basic mechanism of action is that it increases the amount of cyclic AMP (adenosine monophosphate) in cells by activating an enzyme called adenylate cyclase. Cyclic AMP (cAMP) is one of the most important secondary messengers in the cell. It is considered to be one of the most important cell regulating compounds.
Under normal circumstances, cAMP forms by adenylate cyclase activation due to hormonal stimulation at the cell receptor site. However, forskolin seems to bypass this reaction and allows for an increase in intracellular cAMP to occur.
