Studies On Chemical Constituents And Pharmacological Effects

Codonopsis lanceolata(Sieb et Zucc)Bentham et Hooker(Campanulaceae)is a perennial, twining vine.The roots of C.ianceolata have been used as a herbal drug for invigorating qi to replenish yin,moistening lung and encouraging production of body fluids,subsidence of swelling and evacuation of pus,removing toxic materials and treatment of sore in China,and as a tonic crude drug and a edible plant in Korea and Japan.Previous investigations have shown that the roots of C.lanceolata mainly contain triterpenoids,triterpenoid saponin,sterol,flavonoid, alkaloid.It has also been reported that this crude drug has exhibited many pharmacological activities,including analgesia,enhancing memory,antioxidation,anti-mutagenicity,antiinflammatory and increasing immune function.In this study,chemical constituents and pharmacological action of the roots of C.tanceolata were investigated.The ethanol extract was chromatographed on macroreticular resin column and repeated silica gel column,combined with Sephadex LH-20 and reverse phase ODS column chromatography to give eight triterpenoid saponins,and two polyacetylene glycosides.Their structures were elucidated by physicochemical properties and spectral analysis.Among them,one new triterpenoid saponin was named codonolasideⅢ(1),one new polyacetylene glycoside was named codonolapotin(10),eight known compounds were identified as codonoiaside(2)and codonolasideⅠ(3),codonolasideⅡ(4),echinocystic acid 3-O-β-D-glucuronic acid(5),ziyu glycosideⅠ(6),eclalbasaponmⅩⅢ(7),echinocystic acid(8),lobetyolin(9).Compound 5,6 and 9 were isolated from this plant for the first time.The anti-inflammatory activity of the saponins 1,2,3,4,5,7 were evaluated using the xylene-induced mice ear edema,which displayed 59.97%,30.06%,29.00%,62.46%,16.99% and 6.20%inhibition respectively.Furthermore,carbon particle clearance test was used to evaluate the effect of a saponin-rich fraction(SFR)isolated from the ethanol extract of the root on cyclophosphamide model mice, which showed SFR could increase the non-specific immune function of hypoimmunity mice.