Research Progress of Salidroside in the Field of Sports Nutrition

Sports nutrition is crucial for improving athletic performance and promoting recovery, and natural and safe functional supplements have attracted much attention. Salidroside, as the main active component of Rhodiola rosea, has anti-fatigue, antioxidant, and anti-hypoxic effects, showing significant potential in sports nutrition. This article reviews its physicochemical properties and mechanism of action, focuses on its research progress in enhancing endurance, relieving fatigue, improving hypoxia tolerance, and accelerating recovery, analyzes existing limitations, and looks forward to future directions, providing a reference for the in-depth research and application of salidroside in the field of sports nutrition.

Keywords: Salidroside; sports nutrition; antioxidant; energy supply; endocrine regulation

1. Introduction

Modern sports training has increasingly high requirements for physical fitness and recovery ability. However, high-intensity exercise is prone to cause problems such as fatigue, hypoxia, and oxidative stress. Traditional supplements such as caffeine and creatine have certain limitations. Therefore, the development of natural multifunctional active ingredients has become an important direction in sports nutrition research. Rhodiola rosea, as a medicinal plant growing in alpine regions, its core component salidroside has significant anti-fatigue, anti-hypoxic, and antioxidant properties, showing unique advantages in improving athletic performance and promoting recovery, and is becoming a research hotspot in the field of sports nutrition.

2. Biological Pathways of Exercise Improving Body Functions

Exercise health produces comprehensive benefits through the synergistic physiological mechanisms of multiple systems: at the energy metabolism level, it enhances mitochondrial biogenesis and glycolipid metabolism efficiency by activating signaling pathways; the cardiovascular system is characterized by enhanced myocardial contractility, improved vascular endothelial function, and microcirculation reconstruction; the neuromuscular system promotes protein synthesis and muscle fiber remodeling through related molecular pathways, while improving neuromuscular control ability; the body responds to exercise-induced oxidative stress by enhancing the antioxidant defense system and regulating immune-inflammatory balance; the endocrine system optimizes insulin sensitivity and growth hormone secretion rhythm. These integrated physiological adaptations together constitute the molecular basis for exercise to improve physical fitness, prevent metabolic diseases, and delay exercise-induced fatigue.

3. Physicochemical Properties and Metabolic Kinetics of Salidroside

Salidroside is the main active component of the traditional medicinal plant Rhodiola rosea, belonging to the phenylethanoid glycoside class of compounds, with moderate polarity and good water solubility. The metabolic process of this component in the human body shows multi-stage characteristics: after oral administration, it is partially hydrolyzed into tyrosol and glucose by intestinal flora β-glucosidase, absorbed through the portal vein, and undergoes hepatic first-pass effect, mainly undergoing phase II metabolic reactions such as glucuronidation and sulfation, and finally excreted through the kidneys in the form of prototypes and their metabolites. It is worth noting that it has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. This unique pharmacokinetic characteristic is closely related to its wide tissue distribution and multi-target mechanism of action.

4. Efficacy of Salidroside in Sports Nutrition Supplementation

4.1 Enhancing Endurance Exercise Performance

Endurance is an important indicator to measure exercise ability, and salidroside is a natural component that can significantly improve exercise endurance. It provides continuous energy supply for long-term exercise by increasing glycogen reserves in muscles and the liver. At the same time, it can optimize the body's aerobic metabolism capacity and enhance mitochondrial function, helping to produce energy more efficiently during exercise. In addition, salidroside has a unique help for plateau exercise performance. It can improve the body's oxygen utilization efficiency in hypoxic environments, effectively alleviating the impact of plateau environments on exercise ability. Whether in daily exercise or plateau activities, supplementing salidroside can help extend exercise time and improve exercise performance.

4.2 Relieving Exercise Fatigue

Exercise fatigue is a physiological phenomenon caused by factors such as energy consumption, accumulation of metabolites, and oxidative stress. Salidroside can reduce the production and accumulation of lactic acid during exercise, thereby reducing muscle soreness; it also has antioxidant effects, which can neutralize harmful free radicals generated during exercise and protect muscle cells from damage; at the same time, it can regulate the brain's fatigue perception mechanism, reduce fatigue and improve exercise motivation by balancing neurotransmitter levels. These comprehensive effects allow athletes to persist for a longer time and accelerate recovery after exercise.

4.3 Enhancing Hypoxia Tolerance

Hypoxia is a common physiological state in high-intensity exercise and plateau training, which can lead to energy metabolism disorders, lactic acid accumulation, and decreased exercise ability. Salidroside can enhance the body's adaptability in hypoxic environments, and it plays a role through a triple protection mechanism: first, it protects myocardial and skeletal muscle cells to maintain normal energy metabolism in hypoxic states and reduce lactic acid accumulation; second, salidroside can promote hematopoietic function and improve blood oxygen-carrying capacity, allowing the body to obtain more oxygen; most importantly, it can activate the body's own hypoxia adaptation mechanism, promote the formation of new blood vessels and regulate energy supply. These synergistic effects make salidroside particularly suitable for hypoxia-prone scenarios such as plateau activities and high-intensity training, which can effectively alleviate hypoxia discomfort and significantly improve exercise performance and endurance levels.

4.4 Promoting Post-Exercise Recovery

Salidroside can effectively protect muscle tissue after exercise. It reduces damage to muscle fibers caused by high-intensity exercise through antioxidant effects, and at the same time regulates the body's hormone balance, reduces stress hormone levels, and promotes the secretion of muscle repair factors, thereby alleviating muscle soreness after exercise. In addition, salidroside can also accelerate the recovery of energy reserves after exercise, helping the body to replenish glycogen reserves in muscles and the liver more quickly, allowing athletes to recover from fatigue faster and prepare for the next training. This multi-faceted protective effect makes salidroside an ideal auxiliary component for post-exercise recovery.

5. Scientific Basis for the Sports Nutrition Value of Salidroside

As a natural sports nutrition supplement, the efficacy of salidroside has been fully verified through systematic animal experiments and clinical studies. Salidroside can significantly improve exercise endurance performance, and its mechanism of action is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, by optimizing energy metabolism, increasing muscle glycogen reserves, and prolonging the time to exhaustion during exercise; second, improving oxygen utilization efficiency, especially in hypoxic environments such as plateaus, which can effectively increase hemoglobin levels and oxygen-carrying capacity; third, having obvious anti-fatigue effects, which can accelerate lactic acid clearance and reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Clinical data show that regular supplementation of salidroside can improve long-distance running performance by about 7% and plateau exercise performance by more than 10%. The optimal supplementary dose is 300-600mg per day, and it is recommended to use it continuously for 4-8 weeks to achieve stable results. Combined use with supplements such as caffeine can produce a synergistic effect. However, it should be noted that the existing research sample size has insufficient evidence for the effect of strength training, and the effect in high-level athletes is relatively limited. In general, salidroside is particularly suitable for endurance sports enthusiasts and people who need to train in special environments, and is a safe and effective sports nutrition supplement choice.

6. Safety and Adverse Reactions of Salidroside

The safety characteristics of salidroside in sports nutrition applications have been relatively evaluated, and its safety spectrum is mainly reflected in the following dimensions: under the standard dose range and conventional use cycle, clinical data show that it has excellent tolerance characteristics. Human bioavailability studies show that its metabolic pathway is clear, mainly excreted through the liver and kidney pathways without significant accumulation effects. Pharmacokinetic analysis confirms that salidroside will not interfere with the normal function of the main cytochrome P450 enzyme system at therapeutic doses, and the risk of drug interactions is low. However, it is worth noting that it may enhance the efficacy of anticoagulant drugs by affecting platelet aggregation mechanisms. From the perspective of drug use in special populations, existing reproductive toxicity experiments have not found teratogenic evidence, but it is still recommended to take a cautious approach for pregnant and lying-in women.

7. Conclusion and Application Prospects

As the main active component of Rhodiola rosea, salidroside shows unique advantages in the field of sports nutrition, especially in improving endurance performance, relieving exercise fatigue, enhancing hypoxia tolerance, and promoting plateau exercise recovery. Animal experiments and clinical studies have confirmed that it can play a role by improving energy metabolism, antioxidant, regulating endocrine and other pathways, and has high safety, suitable as a sports nutrition supplement under high-intensity or hypoxic environments. In the future, through high-quality research and technological innovation, salidroside is expected to become an important component of targeted sports nutrition programs, providing effective performance improvement and health protection for people with different sports needs and environments. In practical applications, it is recommended to reasonably supplement salidroside under professional guidance according to the type of exercise and environment, combined with scientific training and diet, to achieve the best results.

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