The Study On Pseudo-aldosteronism Toxicity And Chemical Composition Of Licorice Flavonoids Dispersible Tablets

Licorice was the dry root of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer and so on. It was reported that licorice really has a large variety of bioactivities, which including anti-bacterial, anti-oxidation, detoxifica-tion. Licorice flavonoids are a group of complex powder components, which mainly contains flavonols, chalcones, pterocarpins and so on. From the further study on the pharmacology action of licorice flavonoids, it was found that they have anti-inflammation, anti-virus, anti-HIV, anti-ulcer, reducing blood lipid, skin whitening, analgesia, hypoglycemic and treating heart diseases.From our past experiments, it was found that the flavonoids of glycyrrhiza had the strongest a-glucosidase inhibitory activity [10]. we developed licorice flavonoid dispersible tablets (LFT), which showed high hypoglycemic activity in mice[11].In the first part of our article, the pseudo aldosteronism toxicity of LFT on male SD rats was evaluated. All the rats were administrated LFT for21days, and the blood were collected on day0,14,21. The concentrations of serum sodium, potassium and the levels of aldosterone were determined with special assay kits, at the same time, the H R, the S B P and D B P were monitored by the plethysmographic tail-cuff method. After the last of experiment, all of the rats were killed, the heart, aortic vascular and kidney were dissected according to the defined anatomical landmarks, which were used to make H E slices. The results shown that rats fed LFT have no statistically difference in blood potassium, aldosterone level, S B P and D B P and blood sodium in comparing with CON group. Furthermore, LFT had no obvious damage on heart, Aortic vascular and kidney. Therefore, those results suggested that LFT did not shown pseudo aldosteronism, which induce by the Glycyrrhizin. So this study provides the foundation studies for the further application of LFT.In the second part of our articles, the main chemical constituents of LFT were isolated and identified. Ten compounds were got by means of silica gel column chromatography ODS column chromatography, macroreticular resin HP-20column chromatography, Sephadex LH-20, preparative thin layer chromatography. Those structures were elucidated used NMR spectroscopic analysis methods including1H-NMR、13C-NMR、13C-DEPT. According to references, these compounds were identified as neoliquiritin(1),liquiritin(2),liquiritigenin(3),glycycoumarin(4), medicarpin(5),β-sitosterol (6), Phthalic acid butyl isobutyl easter(7), bis (2-ethyl hexyl) phthalate(8),linoleic acid(9),aliphatic alcohol1-triacontanol(10). The determination of those compounds in LFT by H P L C, which shown that the main components were neoliquiritin(15.74%), liquiritin(22.55%), liquiritigenin(2.17%) and glycycoumarin(11.74%). These results would support the basis research for the screening study of a-glucosidase inhibitory activity from LFT.In conclusion, this study reveals that male SD rats fed LFT do not produce pseudo aldosteronism. The main activity chemical composition of LFT were isolated and determined. These investigations put the foundation for the further application of LFT.