PEGAGAN

Pegagan (Centella asiatica) merupakan tanaman liar yang banyak tumbuh di perkebunan, ladang, tepi jalan, pematang sawah ataupun diladang yang agak basah. Tanaman ini berasal dari daerah Asia tropik, terssebar di Asia tenggara, termasuk Indonesia, India, Tiongkok, Jepang dan Australia kemudian menyebar ke berbagai negara-negara lain. Nama yang biasa dikenal untuk tanaman ini selain pegagan adalah daun kaki kuda dan antanan. Sejak jaman dahulu, pegagan telah digunakan untuk obat kulit, gangguan syaraf dan memperbaiki peredaran darah. Masyarakat Jawa Barat mengenal tanaman ini sebagai salah satu tanaman untuk lalapan.

Nama Lokal
pegaga (Aceh), daun kaki kuda (Melayu), antanan (sunda), gagan-gagan, rendeng (jawa), taidah (bali) sandanan (irian) broken copper coin, buabok (Inggris), paardevoet (Belanda), gotu kola (India), ji xue cao (Hanzi).


Jenis Pegagan
Pegagan merupakan tanaman herba tahunan yang tumbuh menjalar dan berbunga sepanjang tahun. Tanaman akan tumbuh subur bila tanah dan lingkungannya sesuai hingga dijadikan pennutup tanah. Jenis pegagan yang banyak dijumpai adalah pegagan merah dan pegagan hijau. Pegagan merah dikenal juga dengan antanan kebun atau antanan batu karena banyak ditemukan di daerah bebatuan, kering dan terbuka. Pegagan merah tumbuh merambat dengan stolon (geragih) dan tidak mempunyai batang, tetapi mempunyai rhizoma (rimpang pendek). Sedangkan pegagan hijau sering banyak dijumpau di daerah pesawahan dan disela-sela rumput. Tempat yang disukai oleh pegagan hijau yaitu tempat agak lembab dan terbuka atau agak ternaungi. Selain itu, tanaman yang mirip pegagan atau antanan ada empat jenis yaitu antanan kembang, antanan beurit, antanan gunung dan antanan air.

Kandungan
Pegagan yang simplisianya dikenal dengan sebutan Centella Herba memiliki kandungan asiaticoside, thankuniside, isothankuniside, madecassoside, brahmoside, brahmic acid, brahminoside, madasiatic acid, meso-inositol, centelloside, carotenoids, hydrocotylin, vellarine, tanin serta garam mineral seperti kalium, natrium, magnesium, kalsium dan besi. Diduga glikosida triterpenoida yang disebut asiaticoside merupakan antilepra dan penyembuh luka yang sangat luar biasa. Zat vellarine yang ada memberikan rasa pahit.

Sifat dan Manfaat
Pegagan berasa manis, bersifat mendinginkan, memiliki fungsi membersihkan darah, melancarkan peredaran darah, peluruh kencing (diuretika), penurun panas (antipiretika), menghentikan pendarahan (haemostatika), meningkatkan syaraf memori, anti bakteri, tonik, antispasma, antiinflamasi, hipotensif, insektisida, antialergi dan stimulan. Saponin yang ada menghambat produksi jaringan bekas luka yang berlebihan (menghambat terjadinya keloid)
Manfaat pegagan lainnya yaitu meningkatkan sirkulasi darah pada lengan dan kaki; mencegah varises dan salah urat; meningkatkan daya ingat, mental dan stamina tubuh; serta menurunkan gejala stres dan depresi. pegagan pada penelitian di rsu dr.soetomo surabaya dapat dipakai untuk menurunkan tekanan darah,Penurunan tidak drastis, jadi cocok untuk penderita usia lanjut.

(http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegagan)

SehatHerbal.Com menyediakan Kapsul Extract Pegagan dan Teh Pegagan. Info lebih lanjut bisa sms 081310343598 atau email : sehatherbal@gmail.com

Wheat in China

Dr. Michael Eades linked to an interesting study yesterday on his Health and Nutrition blog. It's entitled "Vegetable-Rich Food Pattern is Related to Obesity in China."

It's one of these epidemiological studies where they try to divide subjects into different categories of eating patterns and see how health problems associate with each one. They identified four patterns: the 'macho' diet high in meat and alcohol; the 'traditional' diet high in rice and vegetables; the 'sweet tooth' pattern high in cake, dairy and various drinks; and the 'vegetable rich' diet high in wheat, vegetables, fruit and tofu. The only pattern that associated with obesity was the vegetable-rich diet. The 25% of people eating closest to the vegetable-rich pattern were more than twice as likely to be obese as the 25% adhering the least.

The authors of the paper try to blame the increased obesity on a higher intake of vegetable oil from stir-frying the vegetables, but that explanation is misleading. A cursory glance at table 3 reveals that the vegetable-eaters weren't eating any more fat than their thinner neighbors. Dr. Eades suggests that their higher carbohydrate intake (+10%) was partially responsible for the weight gain, but I wasn't satisfied with that explanation so I took a closer look.  Dr. Eades also pointed to their higher calorie intake (+120 kcal/day), which makes sense to me.

One of the most striking elements of the 'vegetable-rich' food pattern is its replacement of rice with wheat flour. The 25% of the study population that adhered the least to the vegetable-rich food pattern ate 7.3 times more rice than wheat, whereas the 25% sticking most closely to the vegetable-rich pattern ate 1.2 times more wheat than rice! In other words, wheat flour rather than rice was their single largest source of calories. This association was much stronger than the increase in vegetable consumption itself!

All of a sudden, the data make more sense. Wheat seems to associate with health problems in many contexts. Perhaps the reason we don't see the same type of association in American epidemiological studies is that everyone eats wheat. Only in a culture that has a true diversity of diet can you find a robust association like this. The replacement of rice with wheat may have caused the increase in calorie intake as well. Clinical trials of low-carbohydrate diets as well as 'paleolithic diets' have shown good metabolic outcomes from wheat avoidance, although one can't be sure what role wheat plays from those data.

I don't think the vegetables had anything to do with the weight gain, they were just incidentally associated with wheat consumption. But I do think these data are difficult to reconcile with the idea that vegetables protect against overweight.