Pine trees have been cultivated since ancient times for their tasty seeds. The essential oils of the bark are now seeing increased interest as an additional medication for psoriasis, in order to reduce the side effects of standard therapy and shorten the overall duration of treatment.
The pine is native to the Mediterranean region and was cultivated in ancient times. Their tasty seeds are mainly used today in the food and confectionery industry.
The ancient Greek physician and pharmacologist Dioskurides described anti-inflammatory and diuretic qualities. He recommended squeezing a fresh whole cone daily, boiling it in 3 cups of wine, and drinking it for coughing, consumption, and bladder problems. Other sources call the powder from pine bark “astringent” and a good remedy for skin diseases.
The antioxidant effect of Pycnogenol is 20 times stronger than vitamin C.
Pine Extract Has an Antioxidant Effect
The bark extract of pine trees in psoriasis is of high scientific interest, as more than 70 human studies have already investigated this mixture of active ingredients. The oligomeric procyanidins (OPC), colourless bitter substances, whose antioxidant potency is 20 times as high as that of vitamin C and 40 times as high as that of vitamin E, are particularly effective.
Psoriasis is a non-infectious, incurable skin disease of unknown origin. According to the German Psoriasis Association, up to 3% of the population is affected.
The severity or intensity of the symptoms can be very different and can range from mild dry scaly itchy eczema in spring/autumn to highly virulent focii and psoriatic arthritis. Unfortunately, treatment often requires the use of drugs with intensive side effects such as corticosteroids, retinoids or immunosuppressive drugs. Therefore, special interest lies in all measures by which psoriasis can be alleviated, not least in order to reduce the dose of these heavy drugs and thus their side effects.
Treatment with Pycnogenol reduced the recovery time by 32%.
A recent study by the University of Pescara in Italy has now confirmed the approach of using pine bark extract systemically. The substrate of the French pine was used in a daily dosage of 150 mg in the preparation Pycnogenol®. 72 patients were treated for 12 weeks.
Free radicals were measured in the blood to monitor the decrease of oxidative stress. One patient group received the standard therapy, the second additionally Pycnogenol.
In principle, both treatment options were effective, but in the Pycnogenol group the improvements were more significant. With regard to the more intensive skin moisture or the reduced skin scaling, the oxidative stress decreased. The treatment time could be reduced by 32 % and the costs on average by 36.4 %, since less additional medication was necessary.
Pine bark extract is thus a natural therapeutic option for psoriasis, for which there will certainly be further studies, possibly also under the aspect of a local application.
