The neuroprotective effects of apigenin are similar to those that protect the heart:

• Reducing inflammation

• Acting as an antioxidant

• Inhibiting of nitric oxide production

• Reducing of lipid peroxidation (the brain is composed of 60 percent lipids)

The compound also performs special functions such as improving the health of astrocytes and reducing microglial activation.

In addition, it activates other protective cell-signaling mechanisms. In an animal model of neuroinflammation resembling Alzheimer’s disease, researchers found apigenin significantly protected neurons in the brain from inflammatory damage.

Apigenin also protected the spinal cord in injured animal models. It did this mainly by inhibiting activation of microglia (immune cells) and release of inflammatory cytokines. I suspect it also protected these neurons by suppressing immunoexcitoxicity, the real mechanism behind spinal cord injury. The same protection was seen for head injuries.

Importantly, apigenin was shown to increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a powerful healing compound in the brain. This is also why apigenin benefits depression, which routinely features low levels of BDNF.

Apigenin, like nano-curcumin, reduces activation of TLR4, a protein that facilitates immune response and is a trigger for immunoexcitoxicity — which, again is the fundamental process at work in all neurodegenerative diseases.