For centuries, we’ve been turning to plant scents (odorants) for all kinds of health benefits – from inflammation relief to kicking chronic pain to the curb.
Beta-caryophyllene (BCP) fits the bill for an effective odorant. Found in spices like black pepper, rosemary, and cannabis, BCP is a natural compound that promotes wound healing.
Let’s explore how beta-caryophyllene can help wounds heal more effectively.
The Study on Beta-Caryophyllene’s Wound Healing Ability
Typically, you’d think that scents only affect us when we smell them through our noses. What if we were to tell you that some odorants could potentially activate different types of receptors outside of our noses?
A recent study highlights how beta-caryophyllene eases inflammation-induced pain by binding with the cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) in the endocannabinoid system.
The study involved researchers using a device containing 50 microliters of beta-caryophyllene diluted with olive oil to cover a full-thickness wound on the back of mice.
It compared the effects of beta-caryophyllene with a control (olive oil). Researchers examined if BCP would aid cell proliferation and help restore the outermost layer of the mice’s skin.
When treated with BCP, female mice with cuts on their skin healed rapidly. The skin around the cut repaired itself due to increased cell multiplication and migration. The treated skin tissue also had more active stem cell genes in the hair follicle bulge. The genes responsible for producing Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels were also more active in the treated skin.
However, it’s worth noting that although beta-caryophyllene interacted with receptors in the mice’s noses, it didn’t enhance wound healing there.
How Beta-Caryophyllene Enhances Skin Healing
When your body patches up a wound, it involves a team effort with four different overlapping stages that can last from minutes to weeks:
First, there’s hemostasis, where your body stops the bleeding. Then comes inflammation, where things get all fired up to fight off any invaders.
After that, it’s all about cell proliferation and migration, where new cells start to take shape. Finally, there’s maturing and scarring, where everything settles down and returns to normal.
Now, in light of the above-mentioned study, let’s talk about beta-caryophyllene and its role in this wound-healing process.
When you use BCP to treat wounds, the affected tissue gets a makeover. Skin cells called keratinocytes start moving from the surrounding healthy skin toward the wound center, speeding up the healing process.
BCP also helps grow fibroblast cells in the reticular dermis, i.e., the deeper layer of the skin. These cells move into the wound area and foster quicker wound healing.
Beta-caryophyllene also stimulates cell division and growth at the wound edges. Additionally, it helps the skin mature faster on the wound’s outer side thanks to a protein called filaggrin. It keeps the skin hydrated and safe from germs.
What’s more, BCP also increases the presence of estrogen receptor alpha, a protein that binds to estrogen, enabling it to heal wounds quickly. In the aforementioned study, this protein was in the healing dermis.
The skin treated with BCP shows more platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFR-A) in the epidermis and the wound edge. These receptors help platelet-derived growth factors to stimulate muscle growth and wound healing.
BCP also helps grow vimentin at the wound edges. It’s a protein that enables fibroblast growth to repair and maintain tissue structure.
Beta-Caryophyllene Boosts Cell Growth
Beta-caryophyllene improves wound healing by encouraging cell growth in damaged tissue. In the above-mentioned study, researchers monitored cell growth after injecting 5-bromo-2’-deoxyuridine (BrdU) every 2 hours.
Their findings were remarkable: wounds treated with BCP had a noticeable bump in BrdU-positive cells, highlighting active growth.
Interestingly, the enhanced cell growth wasn’t limited to the wound edges; it also occurred within the wound itself. This shows just how crucial beta-caryophyllene is in getting those cells to grow and kickstarting tissue repair.
Plus, BCP-treated wounds displayed growth in other regions like the skin and hair follicles, suggesting its wide-reaching impact on tissue healing.
By getting stem cells to move from hair follicles right to the heart of the wound, BCP speeds up the whole process of skin regeneration. It’s not just about calming inflammation – it actively promotes cell growth and helps your skin heal faster.
BCP Increases Cell Migration
In the study we talked about earlier, researchers did some petri dish tests. They found that beta-caryophyllene fosters cell movement. However, they didn’t see this effect in cells that didn’t have a protein called CB2.
Then, they scratched up some cell dishes to mirror little wounds. The cells treated with BCP filled in those scratches way faster than the ones that didn’t get any, regardless of CB2 receptor presence.
It shows that while beta-caryophyllene helps with wound healing, it does not rely only on the CB2 receptor interaction; it uses other pathways to help wounds heal.
BCP Alters Gene Expression in the Wounded Skin
The above-mentioned study also involved researchers examining how BCP affects skin healing pathways. To do this, they analyzed mice skin samples treated with BCP 17–18 hours post-injury.
They found that BCP kicked things into gear by increasing the activity of many genes, especially those linked to cell movement and keratin production. BCP also activated the genes related to hair follicle stem cells, implying that it helps hair follicles grow back and the skin recover.
Beta-caryophyllene also inhibited some troublemaking cytokines, like IL6 and IL-1β, right after the injury. This likely helped ease the initial inflammation.
However, by day four after the injury, cytokine levels were higher in the BCP-treated wounds, which coincided with the time when cells were multiplying during the healing process.
Plus, BCP reduced cell death in the wound bed, which helped with tissue repair. It set off pathways that boosted the growth of keratinocytes, got cells moving in sync, and even switched hair follicle stem cells into action. This ultimately means it used multiple pathways to foster wound healing and skin regeneration.
Unlocking the Potential: Harnessing Beta-Caryophyllene for Enhanced Wound Healing
Let’s recap the ways in which beta-caryophyllene can facilitate the wound-healing process:
- BCP gets right into action by boosting cell migration and growth and dialing down inflammation.
- It stimulates skin regeneration by activating the hair follicle stem cells to move toward the wound.
- BCP could potentially stop cell death, which means more cells help with the healing process.
- BCP might help keep scars in check by reducing inflammation and activating genes that focus on new tissue growth.
Over the years, there’s been a growing interest in BCP—what it is, relevant studies, and whether it really is as good as everyone says it is. If you’re looking to learn more about this compound, you’re at the right place.