Studies On Chemical Constituents And Activity Of Two Medicinal Herbs In Liliaceae

Disporum Salisb. and Smilacina Desf. relate to each other closely, while they belong to Liliaceae. Disporum cantoniense (Lour.) Merr. and Smilacina henryi (Baker.) Wang. et Tang. are two plants which belong to Disporum Salisb. and Smilacina Desf. respectively. Disporum cantoniense, of wet-sweet, is the most widespread species of the Asian taxa in China and used for treatment of rheumatalgia, algomenorrhea, traumatic injury, fervescence and cough in Chinese folk medicine. Smilacina henryi is a traditional herbs by the Shaanxi province people in northwest of China. The rhizome, which is called"Bing pan-qi", has been used for the treatment of rheumatagia, traumatic injury and impotence. Moreover, chemical and activity studies on the two herbs have rare been observed untile now. Therefore, we conducted a detail phytochemical investigation and extensive bioassays on the two plants.Thirty-three constituents were isolated from 95% and 60% alcohol extracts of the whole plants of D. cantoniense and S. henryi. The structures of twenty-seven compounds, including six new compounds and twenty-one known compounds were elucidated on the basis of their physiochemical and spectral data. The six new compounds were: luteolin-4′-O-β-D-(4-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl)-glucopyranoside (DCB50-3), a new flavonoid glycoside; (25S)-17α-hydroxy-5α-spirost-9-en-3β-yl O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→2)-[β-D-xylopyranosyl(1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→4)-β-D-galacopyranoside (SHB 50-1a); (25S)-5α-spirost-9-en-3β-yl O-β-D-glucopyranosyl (1→2)-[β-D-xylopyranosyl(1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→4)-β-D-galacopyranoside (SHB 70-2); (25S)-5α-spirost-7-en-3β-yl O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→2)-[β-D-xylopy- ranosyl(1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→4)-β-D-galacopyranoside (SHB 70-3); (25R)- 5α-spirost-7-en-3β-yl O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→2)-[β-D-xylopyranosyl(1→3)]-β-D- glucopyranosyl(1→4)-β-D-galacopyranoside (SHB 70-4); (25R)-5α-spirost-9-en-3β- yl O-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→2)-[β-D-xylopyranosyl(1→3)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl(1→4)-β-D-galacopyranoside (SHB 70-5), five new steroid saponins. The sugar moieties of the five steroid saponins were identical and correlated to C-3 of aglycones which belonged to spirostane style. The new steroidal aglycones were exceptional because of the double bonds of SHB 50-1a, SHB 70-2 and SHB 70-5 between C-9 and C-11. In addition, there were rare the double bonds of SHB70-3 and SHB70-4 occurred between C-7 and C-8. SHB 70-2 and SHB 70-5, SHB 70-3 and SHB 70-4 were two couples of isomers which differences occurred in stereochemical structures of C-25. Other twenty known compounds from the alcohol extract of D. contoniense were firstly isolated from the plant of Disporum genus. They are: taraxerol (DCP-1); luteolin (DCP-2); sitosterol (DCP-4); daucosterol (DCP-5); sucrose (DCC-4); 2-methyl succinic acid (DCE-1); salicylic alcohol (DCE-2); salicylic acid (DCE-3); tricin (DCE-4); apigenin (DCE-5); chrysoeriol (DCE-6); vanillic acid (DCE-7); adenosine (DCB30-1); 2,6-dihydroxyl benzoic acid (DCB30-2); salicyl alcohol-2-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (DCB30-4); salicyl alcohol-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (DCB30-6); rutin (DCB30-8); luteolin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (DCB50-1); chrysoeriol-7-O-β- D-neohesperidoside (DCB50-2); luteolin-7-O-β-D-neohesperidoside (DCB50-4). Three known compounds from the alcohol extract of S. henryi were firstly isolated from the plants. They are: sitosterol (SHC-1); daucosterol (SHE-1); fructose (SHB50-2).We reported the effects of two compounds from Disporum cantoniense, luteolin (DCP-2) and salicylic alcohol (DCE-2), for inducing resuscitation and tanshinone on catecholamine secretion in cultured bovine adrenal medullary cells. The present findings suggest that two compounds had no effect on catecholamine secretion induced by Ach, Ver and high K+ solutions.