Enhanced Healthspan in Treated With Extracts From the Traditional Chinese Medicine Plants Lam. and Oliv.

To uncover potential anti-aging capacities of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the nematode was used to investigate the effects of and extracts, selected by screening seven TCM extracts, on different healthspan parameters. Nematodes exposed to and extracts, starting at the young adult stage, exhibited prolonged lifespan and increased survival after heat stress as well as upon exposure to the pathogenic bacterium , whereby the survival benefits were monitored after stress initiation at different adult stages. However, only had the ability to enhance physical fitness: the swimming behavior and the pharyngeal pumping rate of were improved at day 7 and especially at day 12 of adulthood. Finally, monitoring the red fluorescence of aged worms revealed that only extracts caused suppression of intestinal autofluorescence, a known marker of aging. The results underline the different modes of action of the tested plants extracts. improved specifically the physiological fitness by increasing the survival probability of after stress, while seems to be an overall healthspan enhancer, reflected in the suppressed autofluorescence, with beneficial effects on physical as well as physiological fitness. The effects may be hormetic: this is supported by increased gene expression of and by trend, also of .