Studies On The Chemical Constituents And Bioactivities From The Roots Of Polygala Japonica Houtt.

Polygala japonica Houtt. (Polygalaceae) is a perennial herbaceous plant which is widely distributed in southern China, and in traditional Chinese medicine it is used as an expectorant, an anti-inflammatory agent for pharyngitis, an anti-bacterial agent and also used for treating amnesia, neurasthenia and palpitation.A series of pharmacological experiments and systematic analyses of chemical constitutions in the roots of Polygala japonica Houtt. have been conducted, which placed a foundation for the further exploiture of Polygalaceae. The dried roots of Polygala japonica Houtt. were refluxed by 95% ethanol and concentrated under reduced pressure, then the residue was eluted respectively by CHCl₃, EtOAc, EtOAc: acetone (1:1), EtOAc: acetone (1:3), acetone, acetone: EtOH (1:1), EtOH and MeOH. The CHCl₃, EtOAc, EtOAc: acetone (1:1), EtOAc: acetone (1:3) and acetone portions showed cognitive improving and cerebral protective effects in rats; the acetone: EtOH (1:1), EtOH and MeOH portions showed obvious anti-inflammatory activities in rats. Based on these results, we studied each extract portion and tried to find some chemical compounds related to above bioactivities.In this thesis, twenty-one compounds were isolated from the EtOAc and aceton-EtOH (1:1) portions of the 95% ethanolic extract. And their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods including IR, MS, HRMS, 1D and 2DNMR and chemical experiments. These compounds were determined as: 7-hydroxy-1-methoxy-2, 3-methylenedioxyxanthone (1), 3-hydroxy-1, 2, 7-trimethoxyxanthone (2), 3, 6-dihy-droxy-1, 2, 7-trimethoxyxanthone (3), 7-hydroxy-1, 3-dimethoxyxanthone (4), 1, 2, 7-trihydroxy-3-methoxyxanthone (5), 3, 7-dihydroxy-1, 2-dimethoxyxanthone (6), 1, 3, 7-trihydroxyanthone (7), hederagenin (8) , 3-O-(6'-O-palmitoyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-spinasta-7, 22 (23)-diene (9), (24R)-stigmast-7, 22 (E)-dien-3α-ol β-D-glucopyrano-side (10), presenegenin (11), sucrose (12), neolancerin (13), polygalasaponin XLVIII (14), polygalasaponin XXVIII (15), polygalasaponin XXIV (16), polygalasaponin XXIX (17), polygalasaponin XLVII (18) , polygalasaponin XLIX (19), polygalasaponin L (20) and polygalajaponicose I (21). Among them, 3, 5, 6, 14, 18, 19, 20 and 21 are new compounds; 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were isolated from this plant for the frist time.