TY  - JOUR
A1  - Riva, Antonella
A1  - Morazzoni, Paolo
A1  - Artaria, Christian
A1  - Allegrini, Pietro
A1  - Meins, Jürgen
A1  - Savio, Daniele
A1  - Appendino, Giovanni
A1  - Schubert-Zsilavecz, Manfred
A1  - Abdel Tawab, Mona
T1  - A single-dose, randomized, cross-over, two-way, open-label study for comparing the absorption of boswellic acids and its lecithin formulation
T2  - Phytomedicine
N2  - Background: The oral administration of the gum resin extracts of Indian frankincense (Boswellia serrata Roxb. ex Colebr) results in very low plasma concentrations of boswellic acids (BAs), being far below the pharmacologically active concentrations required in vitro for anti-inflammatory activity. For that reason the use of Indian frankincense in clinical practice and pharmaceutical development has substantially lagged behind. Recently the application of new formulation technologies resulted in a formulation of frankincense extract with lecithin, which revealed improved absorption and tissue penetration of BAs in a rodent study, leading for the first time to plasma concentrations of BAs in the range of their anti-inflammatory activity.
Purpose: In order to verify these encouraging results in humans, the absorption of a standardized Boswellia serrata extract (BE) and its lecithin formulation (CSP) was comparatively investigated in healthy volunteers.
Study design: According to a randomized cross-over design with two treatments, two sequences and two periods, 12 volunteers alternatively received the lecithin-formulated Boswellia extract (CSP) or the non-formulated Boswellia extract (BE) at a dosage of 2 × 250 mg capsules.
Methods: The plasma concentrations of the six major BAs (KBA, AKBA, βBA, αBA, AβBA, AαBA) were determined using LC/MS.
Results: With the exception of KBA, a significantly higher (both in terms of weight-to-weight and molar comparison) and quicker absorption of BAs from the lecithin formulation was observed, leading to Cmax in the range required for the interaction with their molecular targets.
Conclusion: These findings pave the way to further studies evaluating the clinical potential of BAs, and verify the beneficial effect of lecithin formulation to improve the absorption of poorly soluble phytochemicals.
KW  - Boswellia serrata
KW  - Frankincense
KW  - Boswellic acids
KW  - Triterpenoids
KW  - Lecithin
KW  - Absorption
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/44109
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-441098
SN  - 1618-095X
SN  - 0944-7113
N1  - © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
VL  - 23
IS  - 12
SP  - 1375
EP  - 1382
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - München [u. a.]
ER  -