Yes, an extract from the kudzu vine – which grows wild all over the south, and in China and Japan – appears to be effective at reducing the amount of alcohol a person drinks, according to a, placebo-controlled study published this spring by researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont.
The only catch is that the formulation of kudzu that proved effective in the study is not yet available in health food stores, though it may be within a year. The forms of kudzu that are currently available may be too weak to work, said the study’s author, Dr. Scott Lukas, director of behavioral psychopharmacology research.
Kudzu, which appears to have no adverse side effects, is an herb that Chinese traditional healers have been using for centuries to treat alcohol intoxication and hangovers, said Raye Litten, a physiologist and associate director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Although the research on kudzu for alcohol problems is still preliminary, Litten said, it is promising enough that the government agency is now funding further research on the herb and its active ingredients, puerarin, daidzin and daidzein.
In the McLean study, which appeared in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Lukas and his team showed that binge drinkers who took kudzu drank substantially less than normal – 1.8 beers per session rather than 3.5.
Kudzu does not appear to decrease consumption by acting, as the drug Antabuse does, on the liver enzymes that metabolize alcohol, Lukas said. Nor does it appear to be acting directly on GABA or serotonin receptors in the brain. Rather, it appears to act by increasing blood flow to the brain. If kudzu makes alcohol get to the brain more quickly, it could lead drinkers to feel satisfied sooner and thus turn off the craving for more, Lukas added.