Astragalus is used by traditional Chinese doctors to stimulate the immune system. It contains various compounds including astragaloside. This plant is native to Northern China and Mongolia. It inhabits mostly pine forests and sandy soils. Chinese doctors have used astragalus to fight the flu and the common cold.

Purchase Astragalus extract Planetary Herbals

Astragalus is one of the primary immune tonifiers of Chinese herbs. Full Spectrum Astragalus combines a standardized astragalus herb extract with whole high grade astragalus root, to ensure the presence of the full spectrum of astragalus constituents.

Astragalus Extract supplement facts:
Astragalus Root Extract - 500 mg*
   (standardized to 0.4% methoxyisoflavones)
Astragalus Root (high grade) - 500 mg *

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Chemistry
Astragalus contains polysaccharides that are thought to play an important role in influencing the immune system. Astragalus also contains saponins called astragalosides, along with flavonoids and triterpenes.

Potential uses of Astragalus herb and extract
Heart
Aastragalus has protective effect on ischemia/reperfusion injury. May be helpful in congestive heart failure.

Astragalus and diabetes study
Effects of Astragalus and saponins of Panax notoginseng on MMP-9 in patients with type 2 diabetic macroangiopathy.
Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2004 March. Department of Endocrinology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050051, China.
 To investigate the role and mechanism of Astragalus and saponins of Panax notoginseng in treating type 2 diabetic macroangiopathy. 94 patients with type 2 diabetic macroangiopathy were divided into two groups randomly: group treated with Simvastatin and group treated with astragalus extract and PNS, compared with 40 healthy control subjects. Serum level of MMP-9 and lipid in patients and healthy ginseng were measured before and after treatment. The serum levels of MMP-9, TG, TC, LDL-C, VLDL-C in patients with type 2 diabetic macroangiopathy were improved, while the levels of HDL-C were decreased. Like Simvastatin astragalus extract and ginseng had the function of reducing MMP-9 and accommodating lipid metabolism.

Immune system
Astragalus has been shown to enhance certain aspects of the immune system.

Astragalus Extract, 500 mg
120 Tablets - Planetary Formulas
Astragalus is one of the primary immune tonifiers of Chinese herbalism.

FULL SPECTRUM ASTRAGALUS combines a standardized astragalus extract with whole high grade astragalus root, to ensure the presence of the full spectrum of astragalus constituents.

Supplements and Herbs that help support the immune system:
Astragalus herb and extract
Andrographis plant
Beta glucan extract
Cat's Claw - you can find Cats-Claw supplements on line to purchase.
Citrus bioflavonoid, flavonoid
Echinacea extract
Olive leaf extract is sold as a supplement.
Bifido bacterium, probiotics supplement
Vitamin C supplement
Vitamin  E supplement preferably complex including several tocopherols
Selenium
Zinc mineral is helpful in those who are deficient in zinc.

Astragalus study
Study on effect of Astragalus injection in treating congestive heart failure.
Zhou ZL, Yu P.Third People's Hospital, Hangzhou 310009.
To observe the clinical efficacy and side-effects of Astragalus Injection (AI) in treating congestive heart failure (CHF). Eighty-three patients of CHF with heart function of II-IV grade assessed by NYHA (New York Heart Association) classification were randomly divided into 2 groups. The 42 patients in the treated group were treated with AI 40 ml (equivalent to 80 g crude drug) by adding in 5% glucose solution 500 ml for intravenous dripping, once a day and the 41 patients in the control group were treated by nitrolingual injection 15 mg by adding in 5% glucose solution 500 ml for intravenous dripping once a day. The therapeutic course in both groups was 2 weeks and the patients were followed-up for 1-6 months. The clinical heart function improvement rate and the total effective rate in the treated group after 1 month treatment were 26% and 78%, and after 6 months were 34% and 81% respectively, which were superior to those in the control group significantly. The levels of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), fractional shortening of left ventricular short axis (FS), the ratio of maximum blood flow between the advanced and early atrial systole (E/A), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO) and the cardiac index (CI) were all improved in both groups, but better improvement was shown in the treated group. Follow-up study showed that the incidence of cardiac event was lower in the treated group than that in the control group. Astragalus injection can be took as one of the important auxiliary drugs for treatment of CHF especially in severe cases.

Are there interactions between tribulus herbal  supplement and astragalus root products?
   Not that we know of, we have not seen such an astragalus study result. We will add more information about astragalus and its role in the immune system as more studies are published.