Before you roll your eyes at ancient remedies… listen!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
For centuries, Native American communities used conifer trees to treat pain, weakness, and even paralysis. Could this traditional knowledge hold real medical power?
Enter Alvin Yu and team from University of California, Irvine.
They studied a rare genetic disorder, Episodic Ataxia Type One. It affects balance and coordination. Today’s treatments reduce symptoms, but don’t fix the faulty protein!
So the team isolated pisiferic acid from conifer trees.
Result? In lab-grown cells, it restored the damaged protein! And mice with the disorder regained normal movement after a small dose!
Sometimes, ancient medicine isn’t a myth. It’s science waiting to be understood.
Reference: R.W. Manville, L. Foglia, R.F. Yoshimura, D.J. Hogenkamp, A. Nguyen, A. Yu, & G.W. Abbott, A conifer metabolite corrects episodic ataxia type 1 by voltage sensor–mediated ligand activation of Kv1.1, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (2) e2411816122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2411816122 (2025).