Mechanisms of Apigenin-7-glucoside As a Hepatoprotective Agent

Ixeris chinesis (Thunb.) Ankai has been used as a Chinese folk medicine, but only scanty information is available on the physiological and biochemical functions of the compounds extracted from I. chinesis. In the present study the effects of apigenin -7-glucoside (APIG) isolated from I. chinesis against liver injury caused by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) were investigated. Methods The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), and reduced glutathione (GSH) were evaluated by spectrophotography. The content of 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) was measured with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with electrochemical and UV detection methods. The antioxidant activity of APIG was evaluated using chemiluminescence single photon counting technology. Results CCl4 significantly increased the enzyme activities of GPT and GOT in blood serum, as well as the level of MDA and 8-OHdG in liver tissue, and decreased the levels of GSH. Pretreatment with APIG was able not only to suppress the elevation of GPT, GOT, MDA and 8-OHdG, and inhibit the reduction of GSH in a dose-dependent manner in vivo, but also to reduce the damage of hepatocytes in vitro. On the other hand, we also found that APIG had strong antioxidant activity against reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vitro in a concentration-dependent manner. Conclusion The hepatoprotective activity of APIG is possibly due to its antioxidant properties, acting as scavengers of ROS. These results obtained in vivo and in vitro suggest that APIG has protective effects against hepatic oxidative injury induced by chemicals. Further studies on the pharmaceutical functions and immunological responses of APIG may help its clinical application.

Constituents from Ranunculus sieboldii Miq.

Aim To investigate the chemical composition of Ranunculus sieboldii Miq..Methods Repeated column chromatography over silica gel, polyamide and RP-18 followed by gelfiltration on sephadex LH-20 were used to isolate chemical constituents, and their structures wereelucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods (UV, IR, MS, ~1H NMR, ^(13)C NMR) including 2D NMR(COSY, HMQC, HMBC, NOESY) techniques and by direct comparing spectral data with those reported inliterature. Results Five flavonoid glycosides named apigenin-4'-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (1),apigenin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-4'-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (2), apigenin-8-C-α-L-arabinopyranoside(3), apigenin-8-C-β-D-ga-lactopyranoside (4) , tricin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5), together withtricin (6), luteolin (7), scopoletin (8), esculetin (9), scoparone (10), ferulic acid (11),protocatechuic acid (12) , and tematolide (13) were isolated from the 95% etha-nolic extract of itswhole plant, and their cytotoxic activities were preliminarily tested. Conclusion Compounds 1-12were obtained from this genus and compound 13 from this species for the first time. Furthermore,compound 1 was for the first time isolated from nature while the ^(13)C NMR data of compounds 2 and3 are reported for the first time. The bioassay revealed that compound 1 was active against BEL-7407and A549 cell lines (IC_(45) 43, 77 μg·mL^(-1)), 8 and 10 showed inhibitory activities on KB celllines (IC_(50) 78, 44 μg·mL^(-1)) and HL-60 cell lines (Ic_(50) 85, 85 μg·mL^(-1)), while 7exerted moderate cytotoxic activities on KB, BFL-7407, A549 and HL-60 cell lines with their IC_(50)being 51, 55, 44 and 10 μg·mL^(-1) , respectively.