Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Aug 20, 2026 50 minutes ago
Thai researchers have uncovered promising evidence that Triphala, a traditional herbal preparation made from three medicinal fruits, could help protect red blood cells from oxidative damage, including cells from people with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency.
Triphala extract significantly reduced oxidative destruction of G6PD-deficient red blood cells in laboratory experiments
G6PD deficiency affects hundreds of millions worldwide. People with this inherited condition have weaker antioxidant defenses inside their red blood cells, making the cells vulnerable to destruction when exposed to oxidative stress from infections, certain medicines, foods or chemicals.
Researchers From Thailand and Portugal
The
Thailand Medical researchers were from the Department of Medical Technology, School of Allied Health Sciences; Research Excellence Center for Innovation and Health Products; Futuristic Science Research Center, School of Science, World Union for Herbal Drug Discovery; and Hematology and Transfusion Science Research Center, all at Walailak University, Thailand. Other researchers were from the Department of Medical Science, Amnatcharoen Campus, Mahidol University; Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Thammasat University, Thailand; and Department of Medical Sciences, CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
Testing Triphala Against Oxidative Damage
Triphala contains equal portions of the medicinal fruits Haritaki, Bibhitaki and Amalaki. Researchers prepared a water-based extract and chemically analyzed it. Gallic acid was the predominant phenolic compound detected by LC-MS, while pyrogallol dominated the GC-MS analysis, accounting for 56.24 percent of relative abundance.
Laboratory antioxidant tests also showed substantial free-radical-scavenging activity. Importantly, Triphala concentrations from 25 to 2,000 micrograms per milliliter produced less than 5 percent hemolysis when tested directly against normal and G6PD-deficient red blood cells, suggesting low direct toxicity to the cells under these experimental conditions.
Protection Was Especially Interesting in G6PD Deficiency
Researchers then deliberately exposed red blood cells to hydrogen peroxide to create severe oxidative stress. In normal cells, 50 micrograms per milliliter of Triphala produced the strongest protection, reducing hemolysis to 34.64 percent. Increasing the concentration did not automatically improve protection; at 500 micrograms per milliliter, hemolysis increased to 67.21 percent.
In G6PD-deficient cells, however, every tested Triphala concentration between 25 and 500 micrograms per milliliter provided statistically significant protection. The strongest result occurred at 250 micrograms per milliliter, where hemolysis fell to only 27.94 percent. At 25 micrograms per milliliter, hemolysis was 45.50 percent.
These findings highlighted an important point in this Thailand
Medical News report: herbal compounds can behave differently depending on concentration and t
he antioxidant condition of the cells being treated.
Computer Analysis Reveals Possible Targets
Network pharmacology identified 42 overlapping molecular targets connecting Triphala compounds with oxidative stress, hemolysis and G6PD-related biology. Major hub proteins included PPARG, PTGS2, EGFR, MMP9, TLR4, ACE, REN, PPARA, SERPINE1 and MMP2.
Kynurenic acid, one Triphala constituent, showed particularly strong predicted binding to PTGS2, also called COX-2, and ACE, with binding energies below -7.0 kcal/mol. Molecular-dynamics simulations further suggested these interactions remained stable over time.
Conclusions
The findings suggest Triphala contains multiple compounds capable of reducing oxidative red-cell destruction under laboratory conditions, including in vulnerable G6PD-deficient cells. However, this was not a clinical treatment trial, and the predicted molecular mechanisms still require laboratory confirmation, animal research and carefully designed human studies before Triphala can be recommended therapeutically for G6PD deficiency.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Life.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/16/8/1359
Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/thailand-medical
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/herbs-and-phytochemicals 
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