Washington, Oct 15 : The "vegetable lamb" plant once believed to bear fruit that ripened into a living baby sheep produces compounds that show promise in treating osteoporosis, a bone-thinning disease, say researchers.

Young Ho Kim from Chungnam National University, Korea, and colleagues point out that osteoporosis is a global health problem, affecting up to six million women and two million men in the US alone.

Doctors know that the secret to sturdy bones hinges on a delicate balance of two types of bone cells: osteoblasts, which build up bone, and osteoclasts, which break them down.

Seeking potential medications that might tip the balance in favour of bone building, researchers turned to the "vegetable lamb" plant as part of a larger study on plants, used in folk medicine in Vietnam.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, some of the world's most celebrated scientists believed the plant (Cibotium barmoetz) fruited into a newly born lamb, which then grazed on nearby grass and weeds.

Kim's group isolated compounds from C. barmoetz. He showed they blocked formation of bone-destroying osteoclasts in up to 97 percent of the cells in lab cultures without harming other cells.

The substances "could be used in the development of therapeutic targets for osteoporosis", the article noted.

The study was published in the ACS Journal of Natural Products.(IANS)