Pseudowintera Colorata - Horopito

Pseudowintera colorata , also known as mountain horopito , winterbark or pepper tree (due to the pungent flavour of its leaves), is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Winteraceae native to New Zealand.

Traditionally used by the indigenous Maori people, Pseudowintera is famously known for its many properties, including antifungal and anti-inflammatory .

The main biologically active chemical component isolated from the leaves of P. colorata is polygodial . 7 , 8

Polygodial, extracted from Horopito, has been observed to strongly inhibit Candida albicans grown in vitro, with an activity comparable, and sometimes more powerful, than that of antifungal drugs such as amphotericin B. Available research reports its antifungal activity against different types of Candida: Candida albicans, Candida krusei, Candida utilis .

The mechanism of action of polygodial is to selectively destroy the permeability of the cell wall of these yeasts resulting in lysis and cell death. 9,10

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KOLOREX®BIOACTIVE STUDIES

An ex vivo study used a mixture of Horopito and aniseed to inhibit the growth of C. albicans in the oral cavity. This research concluded that the antifungal action of the administered extracts was consistent against all species tested (including C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. glabrata, C. guilermonii, C. parapsilosis and C. krusei).

Two clinical studies evaluated the efficacy of an oral dose of Horopito extract for the treatment of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC). The first study involved 82 patients and the second 122.

The first study lasted one year while the second lasted two years.

In both studies, patients were divided into two groups: the first group was administered itraconazole, the second Horopito.


In both studies, symptom remission at trial was comparable between the two groups. The benefits of Horopito were more evident in the medium-long term , in the observation period and at the end of the study, highlighting a significantly lower percentage of relapses in the group that had been administered Horopito.

7. B.-E. van Wyk. A Broad Review of Commercially Important Southern African Medicinal Plants.
8. Kubo, I., Lee, S. H. & Shimizu, K. Combination Effect of Miconazole with Polygodial against <i>Candida albicans</i> Open J. Med. Microbiol. 01 , 7–11 (2011).
9. Kipanga, P. N. et al. Investigating the antifungal mechanism of action of polygodial by phenotypic screening in saccharomyces cerevisiae. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 22 , (2021).
10. De La Chapa, J. et al. Novel polygodial analogs P3 and P27: Efficacious therapeutic agents disrupting mitochondrial function in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Int. J. Oncol. 53 , 2627–2636 (2018).