Parmacognocy Research On Pittospori Semen And Its Relatives From Sichuan Province

Pittospori Semen is the dried seed of Pittosporum illicioides Mak. and P. crispulum Gagnep. in Pittosporum. According to the record in Sichuan Province Chinese Herbal Medicine Criterion of 1987 version, its nature is cold and flavour is bitter. It can clear heat and relieve soar throat, astringe intestine and arrest spermatorrhea, relieve diarrhea with astringents. It is used for sore throat, dysentery, enteritis, leucorrhea and night emission.Discovery of investigation in the wild showed that P. illicioides and P. crispulum are all wild without cultivation in Sichuan Province except for P. tobira of Pittosporum. Most of P. illicioides and P. crispulum live on the cliff or inclined hillside of which P. crispulum is more aboundant. As lack of perfessional knowledge, local people can not differentiate trees which belong to so many families of Pittosporum which look similar. Then it makes the species used in medicine varied. So far, there are few researches about P. illicioides. and P. crispulum. at home and abroad as well as their relatives. For better utilizing Pittospori Semen, distinguish the good from bad, making sure this medicine can be accurately, safely and effectively used and exploring new substitute medicine resources from their relatives as the wild P. illicioides and P. crispulum are decreaing, this article systematically studied Pittospori Semen, the seeds of 6 plants of Pittosporum especially the seeds of P. tobira from phamacognosy aspects mainly in morphology, physical and chemical identification, content determination and pharmacology. The results are as follows:The shapes identification characteristic of Pittospori Semen:the seed is irregular shape of polyhedron with red-brown or orange-red color surface and its diameter is 3-6mm; the diameter of the seed of P. tobira is 4-7.5mm with red-brown or orange-yellow surface. The other species showed no differences from them. It can be seen in tissue structure from outer layer to inner that seed coat, pigment layer, aleurone layer, non-functional layer and endosperm cells. The seeds of P. illicioides, P. crispulum, P. tobira and P. rehderianum can be distinguished according to the position of aleurone layer relative to pigment layer and vascular bundle at hila from their vertical and horizontal slides at hila. Epidermis cells of seed coat, pigment layer cells and endosperm cells are main identification characteristic in powder according to their sizes and their values. However, there are no significant differences between species.Systematically pre-experiment of chemical components showed that flavone, steroides, saponin, terpenoid, grease, anthraquinone, sugar, lactone, amino acid, peptide, protein are contained in Pittospori Semen and alkaloid, phenols, tannin, cardiac glycoside and naphtha are not contained.Two TLC identification methods of Pittospori Semen are established which respectively use iodine vapor and UV fluorescence chromogenic method. The TLC results of the seeds of 8 species by UV fluorescence chromogenic method showed that quercetin is contained in the seeds of P. illicioides, P. crispulum, and P. rehderianum, P. xylocarpum, P. glabratum and P. subulisepalum. And there are little quercetin in P. tobira.The content of water, total ash, acid-insoluble ash of Pittospori Semen and the seed of P. tobira is determined and the limit inspection ranges are established.Extract content determination method of Pittospori Semen is established. The range of extract content of samples from different regions is 19.01%～21.93% with the average content is 20.2%. And the average extract content of the seeds of P. tobira is 11.2%.Total flavonoids content determination method by UV is established. The average total flavonoids content from different regions is 1.30%, and the average total flavonoids content of the seeds of P.tobira is 0.73%.In pharmacology aspects, the safety experiment of the seeds of P. crispulum and P. tobira showed that they are safe and don't have obvious acute toxicity. Pharmacodynamics study showed that the high, middle and low dose of the seed decoction of P. crispulum and the low dose of seed decoction of P. tobira all appear weak anti-inflammatory effect. The middle dose of the seed decoction of P. tobira appears significant anti-inflammatory effect. Three doses of the seed decoction of P. crispulum all appear weak antidiarrheic effect while the high and middle dose of the seed decoction of P. tobira could aggravate diarrhea. So Pittospori Semen cant't be substituted by the seed of P. tobira when used for relieving diarrhea.By systematical pharmacognocy study of Pittospori Semen, standard quality criterion of Pittospori Semen is elementarily established which provide references for Sichuan Province Chinese Herbal Medicine Criterion of 2008 version. And the systematical pharmacognocy study of the seeds of 6 Pittosporum plants especially the pharmacodynamics comparison study of the seed of P. tobira and P. crispulum provide scientific references for further study.