Agave americana · PhytoNexus

01 Identity and provenance

Accepted binomial: Agave americana
Common names: Agave
Family (APG IV): Asparagaceae
Part used: Leaf
Verification tier: Tier 1 · chemistry only Taxonomy, plant part and marker chemistry are populated and stable. The clinical columns are deliberately empty because no primary source has been retrieved for them yet. Interactions shown below are rule predictions from the constituent chemistry, not clinical findings.
Reviewer note (2026 audit): TIER 1 populated (name, family, part, constituent class, marker) - stable taxonomic/phytochemical facts. TIER 2 columns (analogue, application, brand, interactions, side effects) left blank BY DESIGN - populate only from retrieved primary literature. Do not use clinically until Tier 2 is filled and a reference is recorded.

02 Constituent chemistry

Chemical class	Marker compound	Synthetic analogue in use
Steroidal saponins	Hecogenin Leaf	none listed

The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.

Looking up structures and physicochemical properties from PubChem…

03 Stated application

Left empty by design — this is a Tier 1 entry, and the clinical columns are only populated once a primary source has been retrieved for them.

04 Interaction matrix

Predicted from constituent chemistry

These edges are not clinical findings. Each one is a rule inference: a constituent class in this plant is known to act on a target that the drug class also acts on. They are shown because a blank cell reads as “safe”, and for a Tier 1 entry a blank cell only means “not yet looked at”. Treat them as a literature-search agenda, not as a warning.

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Antidiabetic drugs (insulin, sulfonylureas, biguanides, GLP-1, SGLT2) Endocrine	3Major	PD-additive	predicted D	Symptomatic hypoglycaemia, sweating, tremor, confusion; severe events rep…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Triterpene and steroidal saponins alter membrane permeability, inhibit platelet aggregation and show weak steroid-receptor affinity. Class mechanism. Hypoglycaemic botanicals act through insulin secretagogue, insulin-sensitising, alpha-glucosidase-inhibiting or glucose-transport routes. Added to a titrated pharmacological regimen the effects summate rather than plateau. Expected Symptomatic hypoglycaemia, sweating, tremor, confusion; severe events reported with insulin and sulfonylureas. Management Increase self-monitoring frequency for 2 weeks after starting or stopping. Anticipate a downward dose adjustment of insulin or sulfonylurea. Onset rapid Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Antiplatelet agents Haemostasis	3Major	PD-additive	predicted D	Prolonged bleeding time, surgical and post-procedural bleeding, bruising,…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Triterpene and steroidal saponins alter membrane permeability, inhibit platelet aggregation and show weak steroid-receptor affinity. Class mechanism. Organosulfur compounds, gingerols, salicylates, ginkgolides and eugenol inhibit thromboxane A2 synthesis, platelet aggregation and PAF-mediated activation, duplicating the pharmacology of aspirin and P2Y12 blockers. Expected Prolonged bleeding time, surgical and post-procedural bleeding, bruising, haematuria. Management Stop the botanical 7-14 days before elective surgery or neuraxial anaesthesia. Record it on the pre-operative medicines list. Onset rapid Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Hormonal therapy, oral contraceptives and HRT Endocrine	3Major	PK-CYP3A4 induction + PD-oestrogenic	predicted D	Breakthrough bleeding and contraceptive failure; unpredictable effect in …	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Triterpene and steroidal saponins alter membrane permeability, inhibit platelet aggregation and show weak steroid-receptor affinity. Class mechanism. CYP3A4-inducing botanicals accelerate ethinylestradiol and progestin clearance. Separately, isoflavone, lignan and coumestan phyto-oestrogens bind oestrogen receptors and may add to or compete with prescribed hormones. Expected Breakthrough bleeding and contraceptive failure; unpredictable effect in hormone-sensitive malignancy. Management Advise a second, non-hormonal contraceptive method. Avoid phyto-oestrogens in oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer without oncology advice. Onset delayed Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

05 Hazard register

The audit recorded no hazard beyond the interaction profile. The controlled-vocabulary field reads not assessed, which means the assessment has not been done rather than that it came back clear.

06 Confusable material

No same-genus or shared-common-name entry in the corpus.

07 Mechanism map

Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.

species

chemical class

marker compound

drug class

expected effect

hazard

08 Open literature

Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.

Checking openFDA spontaneous reports…

09 Isomechanistic neighbours

Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.

Species	Family	Shared classes	Jaccard
Gymnema sylvestre Gurmar	Apocynaceae	3	1.00
Tribulus terrestris Gokshura	Zygophyllaceae	3	1.00
Achyranthes aspera Apamarga	Amaranthaceae	3	1.00
Sapindus mukorossi Reetha	Sapindaceae	3	1.00
Cheilocostus speciosus Kebuka	Costaceae	3	1.00
Dioscorea villosa Wild Yam	Dioscoreaceae	3	1.00

10 References and notes

No citation is on record for this entry. That is itself the finding: the audit flagged it, and it is why the entry does not carry an A evidence grade.

Curator notes

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