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Saw palmetto extract is an extract of the fruit of ''Serenoa repens''. It is rich in fatty acids and phytosterols. It has been used in traditional, eclectic, and alternative medicine to treat a variety of conditions, most notably benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Reviews of clinical trials, including those conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found the extract to be no more effective than placebo for BPH. ==Medicinal use== Saw palmetto is used in several forms of traditional herbal medicine. American Indians used the fruit for food and to treat a variety of urinary and reproductive system problems. The Mayans drank it as a tonic, and the Seminoles used the berries as an expectorant and antiseptic.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens () Small)] )〕 Crude saw palmetto extract was used by European/American medical practitioners for at least 200 years for various conditions, including asthenia (weakness), recovery from major illness, and urogenital problems. The eclectic medicine practitioner H. W. Felter wrote of it, "Saw palmetto is a nerve sedative, expectorant, and a nutritive tonic, acting kindly upon the digestive tract...Its most direct action appears to be upon the reproductive organs when undergoing waste of tissue..."〔(Felter's complete text )〕 King's American Dispensatory (1898) says of the extract: It is also an expectorant, and controls irritation of mucous tissues. It has proved useful in irritative cough, chronic bronchial coughs, whooping-cough, laryngitis, acute and chronic, acute catarrh, asthma, tubercular laryngitis, and in the cough of phthisis pulmonalis. Upon the digestive organs it acts kindly, improving the appetite, digestion, and assimilation. However, its most pronounced effects appear to be those exerted upon the urino-genital tracts of both male and female, and upon all the organs concerned in reproduction. It is said to enlarge wasted organs, as the breasts, ovaries, and testicles, while the paradoxical claim is also made that it reduces hypertrophy of the prostate. Possibly this may be explained by claiming that it tends toward the production of a normal condition, reducing parts when unhealthily enlarged, and increasing them when atrophied.〔(King's American Dispensatory 1898 )〕 Saw palmetto extract has been claimed to be a herbal treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, a common condition in older men. Early research indicated that the extract brought about a "mild to moderate improvement in urinary symptoms and flow measures."〔 However, newer and more thorough research concluded saw palmetto is ineffective as a treatment for BPH.〔 Limited ''in vitro'' and animal model studies have investigated potential for use in the treatment of cancer. However, according to the American Cancer Society, "available scientific studies do not support claims that saw palmetto can prevent or treat prostate cancer in humans". Saw palmetto extract has been suggested as a potential treatment for male pattern baldness. 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「Saw palmetto extract」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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