A plant compound is helping injured brains regrow their wiring — along two pathways at once

About 70 million people a year sustain a traumatic brain injury, and no approved drug directly helps the brain regrow the connections it loses. After more than eight years screening over 2,000 extracts from nearly 900 plants, Professor Linyi Chen's team at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan landed on isorhoifolin — a plant compound that works on two fronts at once, they report in Phytomedicine: in neurons it promotes the regrowth of neurites (the wiring between brain cells), and in neighbouring astrocyte cells it cuts oxidative stress. In mice with brain injuries, the compound — which reached the brain within 15 minutes when given through the nose — improved motor coordination and tissue repair. It is preclinical work, years from any human treatment, but it is a rare double mechanism from a single natural molecule.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation