Hedge apples as cure for Alzheimers?

The fruit from the bois d'arc tree, commonly known as the Osage Orange tree, contains extraordinary high levels of isoflavone compounds. Isoflavone compounds may play a role in lowering one's risk for heart disease and cancer, ease menopause symptoms and improve bone health. The unique isoflavones from the Osage Orange has been shown to protect brain cells, or neurons from the toxic effect of amyloid beta peptide. Amyloid beta peptide is believe to be responsible for the degeneration of neurons in Alzheimer's patients. However, the precise mechanisms by which the isoflavones block the toxicity of amyloid beta peptide are unknown, according to studies in some laboratories.

Soybeans contain less than one-tenth of one percent of isoflavone compounds. By comparison, the dry mass of the Osage Orange hedge balls contain between 5 percent and 10 percent of isoflavone compounds. No known dietary plant contains this high level of isoflavone.

Horses often eat the fruit and so do lots of other critters on our land. You can always see piles of half eaten fruits around the entrances to pack rats nests. Squirrels also love to munch on this fruit.  The phenolic character of the isoflavones in Osage Orange might cause stomach irritation in humans, though.  Salicylic acid, which is also a phenolic compound isolated from willow bark, causes stomach irritation, but this compound led to the discovery of aspirin. The biological activities of the chemical compounds contained in hedge apples are only just now starting to be understood.

The full study from Texas A&M is quoted below.  Studies like this are hard to find in general web searches.  Pharmaceutical companies don't want people to have easy access to cures that are so easily accessible in anyone's back yard.  

If you are looking for hedge balls, you can buy them in our store during their peak times, usually from July to September, but varies due to weather conditions.

The Texas A&M study in it's entirety:

Hedge Apples or DEET?

Osage Orange fruits also known as hedge apples have shown repellent properties against mosquitoes and roaches in one study.  It's the elemol, a sesquiterpene that's extracted from the osage orange that has everyone so excited.  If you really want to read the abstract it is copied below.  It's hard to find otherwise on the web.

We carry fresh hedge balls when they are in season - usually from July to September or so. You can find them here: HedgeBalls

Natural insect repellents : Activity against mosquitoes and cockroaches Auteur(s) / Author(s) SCHULTZ Gretchen ; PETERSON Chris ; COATS Joel ; Résumé / Abstract Recent research has focused on the repellent properties of extracts from the catnip plant (Nepeta cataria) and the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) fruit. This chapter includes results on German cockroach (Blattella germanica), and house fly (Musca domestica) contact irritancy to catnip essential oil, and its major components, Z,E-nepetalactone and E,Z-nepetalactone, compared with the commercial standard, N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET). Both species showed high percentage repellency values when exposed to filter paper treated with catnip essential oil or the individual nepetalactone isomers. Of the two nepetalactone isomers evaluated, German cockroaches were most responsive to the E,Z isomer. House flies showed similar trends in contact irritancy, responding to surfaces treated with the predominant catnip isomer, Z,E-nepetalactone, more intensely than to the catnip essential oil. Catnip and Osage orange essential oils, and a sesquiterpene found in Osage orange, elemol, were evaluated for repellency to the northern house mosquito (Culex pipiens) and are presented here. Two mosquito bioassays were used to measure percentage and contact repellecy. Mosquitoes responded initially with high percentage repellency to surfaces treated with catnip essential oil. From the residual repellency study, this trend in repellency by the catnip oil significantly decreased over the 180-minute test period. Elemol, and DEET initially had lower percentage repellency values than catnip essential oil, but did not show the negative relationship between percentage repellency and time, retaining excellent repellency throughout the 3-hour bioassay. Solutions with elemol and DEET exhibited greater significance in contact repellency compared to catnip essential oil. These results show that catnip essential oil is a potent mosquito repellent, but does not provide the same residual effects as the commercial standard, DEET. Elemol, a sesquiterpene extracted from the fruit of the Osage orange, shows excellent promise as a mosquito repellent with comparable activity to DEET in contact and residual repellency. Revue / Journal Title A.C.S. symposium series ISSN 0097-6156 CODEN ACSMC8 Source / Source 2006, vol. 927, pp. 168-181 [14 page(s) (article)] Langue / Language Anglais Editeur / Publisher American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, ETATS-UNIS (1974) (Revue) Localisation / Location INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 17351, 35400015690515.0130 Title: Natural insect repellents: activitity against mosquitoes and cockroaches Author: Schultz, Gretchen; Peterson, Chris; Coats, Joel Date: 2006 Source: In. A.M. Rimmando and S.O. Duke eds. Natural Products for Pest Management. ACS Symposium Series #927. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. 169-181 Description: Recent research has focused on the repellent properties of extracts from the catnip plant (Nepeta cataria) and the Osage orange (Maclura pornifera) fruit. This chapter includes results on German cockroach (Blattella germanica), and house fly (Musca domestics) contact irritancy to catnip essential oil, and its major components, Z,E-nepetalactone and 62- nepetalactone, compared with the commercial standard, N,Ndiethyl- m-toluarnide (DEET). Both species showed high percentage repellency valuec when exposed to filter paper treated with camip essential oil or the individual nepetalactone isomers. Of the two nepetalactone isomers evaluated, German cockroaches were most responsive to the E,Z isomer. House flies showed similar trends in contact irritancy, responding to surfaces treated with the predominant catnip isomer, Z,E-nepetalactone, more intensely than to the catnip essential oil. Catnip and Osage orange essential oils, and a sesquiterpene found in Osage orange, elemol, were evaluated for repellency to the northern house mosquito (Culex pipiens) and are presented here. Two mosquito bioassays were used to measure percentage and contact repellecy. Mosquitoes responded initially with high percentage repellency to surfaces treated with catnip essential oil. From the residual repellency study, this trend in repellency by the catnip oil significantly decreased over the 180-minute test period. Elemol, DEET initially had lower percentage repellency values than catnip essential oil, but did not show the negative relationship between percentage repellency and time, retaining excellent repellency throughout the 3-hour bioassay. Solutions with elemol and DEET exhibited greater significance in contact repellency compared to catnip essential oil. these results show that catnip essential oil is a potent mosquito repellent, but does not provide the same residual effects as the commercial standard, DEET. Elemol, a sesquiterpene extracted from the fruit of the Osage orange, shows excellent promise as a mosquito repellent with comparable activity to DEET in contact and residual repellency.