Research On The Chemical Consitituents And Anti-aging Activities Of The Roots Of Damnacanthus Officinarum Huang

Damnacanthus officinarum Huang?DOH?is a kind of green vine of Damnacanthus species,Rubiaceae family.It is widely distributed in Northwest Hubei procince or Sichuan province.The roots of this plant have been used in folk medicine to help strengthen kidneys and enhance the immune system function and so on,which play an important role in treating impotence,menstrual disorders and rheumatoid arthritis.In order to screening the medical constituents of DOH,the chemical constituents and antiaging activity has been systematically studied in the research.The ethanol extracts has been separated and purified by repeated silica gel,ODS,sephadex LH-20 and semi-preparative HPLC to afford 20 compounds.Various spectroscopic methods including 1D NMR,2D NMR,HR-ESI-MS and so on has been used to identify these structures.There are Rubiadin?1?,Rubiadin-1-methyl ether?2?,Ibericin?3?,2-methyl anthraquinone?4?,1-hydroxy-2-methyl anthraquino ne?5?,2-hydroxy-1-methoxy anthraquinone?6?,3-hydroxy-2-methyl-1-methoxy anthraquinone?7?,1,3-dimethoxy-2-ethoxymethyl anthraquinone?8?,2-hydroxy-1-methoxy anthraquinone?9?,2-hydroxy-3-hydroxymethyl anthraquinone?10?,Asperuloside?11?,Monotropein?12?,Deacetylasperulosidic acid?13?,Asperulosidic acid?14?,Daphylloside?15?,Scandoside?16?,Ningpogenin?17?,n-butyl-O-?-D-fructopyranoside?18?,n-butyl-O-?-D-fructofuranoside?19?,?-sitosterol?20?.It is worth mentioning that compounds 3,4,7,8,10,11,13,14,15,16,17 and 19 were firstly isolated from DOH and Damnacanthus species.The subacute aging model induced by D-galactose has been established to investigate the anti-aging effect of Damnacanthus officinarum Huang?DOH?.The mistake times of model group were much more than those of the treatment groups with DOH in the step-down test and Morris water maze test.Futhermore,the visceral organ index of brain,spleen,liver,testis and epididymis has been improved,the apoptotic index of left hippocampus has been reduced,the activity of antioxidant enzymes?such as SOD,CAT and GSH-Px?has been increased and the content of MDA has been decreased in serum and brain tissue.All currently available data indicate that DOH has significant antiaging effect on subacute aging mice induced by D-galactose possibly by increasing the activities of Antioxidase,eliminating cell injury induced by ROS,reducing cell apoptosis brain and vital organs such as thymus and spleen.The mechanism of inhibiting apoptosis with DOH is maybe associated with apoptotic regulation via up-regulating the expression of positive regulatory factors?CDK4/6 and CyclinD1?and down-regulating the expression of negative regulatory factors(pRb,p16^INK4a,p19^ARF,p21^CIP1).The monomeric compounds have different protective effects on NO-injured PC12 neurons,and have no obvious protective effect on caffeine-injured PC12 neurons.