Preventive Effects of Eleutherococcus senticosus Bark Extract in OVX-Induced Osteoporosis in Rats

Eleutherococcus senticosus (Siberian ginseng), has been used as a powerful tonic herb with an impressive range of health benefits. This medicinal herb has been commonly used to treat bone metabolism diseases due to its traditional Korean medicine use to strengthen muscle and bone. This study was conducted to investigate prevention of bone loss by a standardized extract of dried E. senticosus stem bark in an ovariectomized (OVX) rat model of osteoporosis. The OVX groups were divided into five groups treated with distilled water, 17β-estradiol (E2 10 μg/kg, once daily, i.p) and dried stem bark of E. senticosus extracts (DES 10, 30, and 100 mg/kg, once daily, p.o) for eight weeks, respectively. After eight weeks of treatments, the femur bone mineral density of the 100 mg/kg DES-treated group was significantly higher than that of the OVX-control group (16.7%, p < 0.01) without affecting the body, organs, and uterus weights, and serum estradiol levels. Additionally, bone markers such as serum ALP, CTx, and OC levels were significantly decreased in the DES 100 mg/kg treated group. These results show that DES is able to prevent OVX-induced in bone loss without the influence of hormones such as estrogen.