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:''"Figwort" redirects here. This is also used for some other plants; see below.'' The genus ''Scrophularia'' of the family Scrophulariaceae comprises about 200 species of herbaceous flowering plants commonly known as figworts. Species of ''Scrophularia'' all share square stems, opposite leaves and open two-lipped flowers forming clusters at the end of their stems. The genus is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but concentrated in Asia with only a few species in Europe and North America. ''Scrophularia'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including ''Phymatopus hectoides''. Some species in this genus are known to contain potentially useful substances, such as iridoids, and several ''Scrophularia'' species, such as the Ningpo figwort or Chinese figwort (''S. ningpoensis''), have been used by herbal medicine practitioners around the world. The name ''Scrophularia'' comes from scrofula, a form of tuberculosis, because several species have been used to treat this disease. As a herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, it has found use in a formula to treat arthritis. The herb has demonstrated a powerful painkilling ability equal to that of cortisone and twice as effective as indomethacin, a popular NSAID used to treat arthritis. Scrophularia exerts these significant analgesic effects with virtually no side effects. Extracts of Scrophularia have been shown to reduce edema, cell infiltration and proliferation of activated T-lymphocytes in joint tissues.〔Schinella GR, Tournier HA, Prieto JM, Mordujovich de Buschiazzo P, Ros JL. Antioxidant activity of anti-inflammatory plant extracts. Life Sci. 2002 Jan 18;70(9):1023-33.〕Additionally, Scrophularia has been shown to inhibit a number of inflammatory factors, including prosta-glandin E2, leukotriene B4, NO, interleukin-1beta, interleukin-2, interleukin-4 and interferon-gamma, but with no negative effect on the production of interleukin-10, a powerful cytokine involved in the regulation of inflammatory responses.〔Li YM, Han ZH, Jiang SH, Jiang Y, Yao SD, Zhu DY. Fast repairing of oxidized OH radical adducts of dAMP and dGMP by phenylpropanoid glycosides from Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2000 Dec;21(12):1125-8.〕Moreover, Scrophularia is the source of a unique glycoterpenoid, Verbascosaponin A, which is twice as potent as indomethacin for relieving inflammation and pain. .〔Giner RM, Villalba ML, Recio MC, Mñez S, Cerd-Nicols M, Ros J. Anti-inflammatory glycoterpenoids from Scrophularia auriculata, Eur J Pharmacol. 2000 Feb 18;389(2-3):243-52.〕 ==Selected species== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scrophularia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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