Research progress in health benefits of Ashitaba

The herb Ashitaba is considered as a diuretic,nourishing,digestion promoting,and infection preventing agent in Japanese tradition.The main effective components in Ashitaba were chalcones,coumarins and flavonoids etc.in vitro and animal experiments suggested that Ashitaba had certain health benefits such as anti-cancer,regulating blood lipid and serum glucose,improving cardiovascular health,anti-inflammatory,antibacterial,antioxidant,etc.As requirement of life quality grows,Ashitaba and its function of preventing chronic diseases have gain consumers ' attention. This paper reviewed the main functional components,health benefits,safety and application of Ashitaba,and provided a scientific basis for products development.