Study On The Antidepressant Fraction From Radix Pittospori And Its Chemical Components

Depression is a disorder of impaired emotion regulation, sustained negativeaffect and a persistent reduction in positive affect are the hallmark features of clinicalsyndrome. A major depressive episode often trends to commit suicide, it has becomethe globe disabled diseases harmful to human physical and mental health. Themajority of drug treatment relies to chemotherapy, antidepressant drugs commonlyused at present have too much shortage, such as drug resistance and side effect. Thesource of Radix Pittospori is from the roots of Pittosporum illicioides Makino, familyPittosporaceae. The medicinal material is produced in the southwest of China, Shanxi,Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, and mainly in the province of Guizhou. Pharmacopoeia ofthe People's Republic of China, edition1977(Pharmacopoeia of P.R.C) recorded thisplant as Chinese medicine: Radix Pittospori has the sedation and hypotension actions,which indicated for neurasthenia, insomnia, dreaminess and hypertension. Dictionaryof Chinese Materia Medica also recorded it as an herb that used for tranquilizing themind and tonifying the kidney. Radix Pittospori is a kind of minority tranquilizersherb, which generally for the treatment of neurasthenia in Guizhou folk medicine. Inorder to explore active ingredients, extend clinical application, control herb materialquality, make a new drug from Traditional Chinese Medicine, utilize the herb material anddevelop national drug, the thesis described the pharmacological activities and the analysisof the chemical constituents of Radix Pittospori.The basic principle of treating depression with Chinese medicinal herbs is tonourish the heart, calm the mind, benefit the heart and spleen, dredge the meridian andalleviate pain. Though Radix Pittospori has pretty tranquilization property, theresearch in the fields of antidepressant pharmacological action and activitycompounds are barely reported. As its extracts are aqueous and ethanolic extracts, sothat the depressive evaluation animal model screening was based on both of themfirstly. The results indicated that both the decoction and ethanolic extracts of RadixPittospori significantly reduced the duration of immobility either tail suspension testor forced swimming test in the mice equally to fluoxetine treatment group that suggestthe Radix Pittospori had potential antidepressant action primary.Further investigation on the antidepressant fraction from Radix Pittospori viasolvent extraction method divided to four parts: Petroleum ether, ethylene dichloride,ethyl acetate and butanol fraction. Building upon previous studies that used theduration of immobility in male rodents during the tail suspension and forcedswimming test as a behavioral measure of the depression-like state, we investigated whether the duration of immobility in male mice was altered following the formerfour extracts treatment. The results showed that these extracts decreased the durationof immobility variously. Among them, the ethyl acetate and butanol fraction exhibitedan obviously effect against the depressive-like hopeless action.In order to clarify the chemical composition and active ingredients, Air-driedRadix Pittospori was extracted with95%and70%ethanol to afford a series organicsolvent extraction processes. Then, those fractions were partitioned successively withcolumn chromatography, AB-8macroporous resin, sephadex LH-20. After theconstant measurement, the structural identification of the compounds was carried outby spectroscopy analysis (UV, IR, NMR, MS).20compounds were elucidated to be:4anthraquinones,4lignanoids,4triterpenoid glycosides,2coumarins,2fatty acids,1phthalide,1naphthtyl ester,1sterol and1aromatic acid.3of them are new:(S)-3-ethyl-4,7-dimethoxyphthalide(4),3-oxo-20-demethylisoaleuritolic-14(15)-ene-28,30-dioic acid (6) and21-(2-acetoxy-2-methylbutanoyl)-22-acetyl-R1-barrigenol (11)together with a new natural product:4,4-dimethylheptanedioic acid(8).16areknown compounds: mollugin(1), stearic acid(2), stigmasterol(3),6,7-dimethoxy--coumarin (5),7-hydroxy-6-methoxycoumarin(7),1,3-dihydroxy-9,10-anthraquinone(9),3α-hydroxyl-20-demethylisoaleuritolic-14(15)-ene-28,30-dioic acid(10), syringicacid(12),2-(3',5'-dimethoxy-4'-hydroxyphenyl)-3,7-dioxabicyclo[3,3,O]octan-6-one(zhebeiresinol,13), syringaresinol (14), syringaresinol-4',4'-O-bis-β-D-glucoside (15),2-methyl-1,3,6-trihydroxy-9,10-anthraquinone(16),8-O-4/8-O-4-dehydrotriferulic acid(17),2-methyl-1,3,6-trihydroxy-9,10-anthraquinone-3-O-α-rhamnosyl(1→2)-β-D-(6'-O-acetyl)-glucoside(18),2-methyl-1,3,6-trihydroxy-9,10-anthraquinone-3-O-α-rhamnosyl(1→2)-β-D-glucoside(19),3-O-{β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-[α-L-arabino--pyranosyl-(1→3)]-β-D-glcuronopyranosyl-(1→)}-21-(2-acetoxy-2-methylbutyryl)-22-acetyl-R1-barrigenol(20). It is worth mentioning that Compounds1,7,9,10,13,16-19were isolated from Pittosporum for the first time, and compound20was isolated fromthis plant for the first time.