Antiviral activities of flavonoids and organic acid from Trollius chinensis Bunge
Introduction
Trollius chinensis Bunge (Ranunculaceae) is an endemic growing widely in northern China. Its flowers are often used to treat upper respiratory infections, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, and bronchitis in Chinese folk medicine (Beijing Pharmacy Factory, 1978). Previous studies indicated antibacterial activities in the crude aqueous extract of the flowers (Beijing Pharmacy Factory, 1978, Bai, 1994). These activities were ascribed to the flavonoids present in the plant of Trollius species (Su et al., 1996, Yang et al., 2000). The crude aqueous extract of the flowers was also tested for antiviral activities against adenovirus, coxsackie, and ECHO virus, but the antiviral activities were found only against coxsackie B3 (Wen et al., 1999).
Until now, only a few compounds have been reported from this herb, including orientin, vitexin, 3,4-dimethoxybenzamide, palmitic acid, veratric acid and volatile oil (Kang et al., 1984, Li, 1982, Feng, 1998). Clinical studies in the treatment of upper respiratory infections showed that the combined efficacy is 92.7% (Beijing Pharmacy Factory, 1978). Upper respiratory infection, especially in children, is a common disease worldwide. Parainfluenza type 3 (Para 3) virus has been recognized as a major cause of such infections (Couch, 1997). No chemotherapy agents and vaccine have been used to treat Para 3 infections. Therefore, the development of new antiviral agents is most desirable. In this paper, we report the extraction, isolation and identification of flavonoids and organic acid from the flowers of T. chinensis, and their antiviral activities against Para 3.
Section snippets
Plant material
The flowers of T. chinensis Bunge were collected from Hebei Province, People's Republic of China, in 1999. It has been authenticated by a voucher specimen (20012422) kept at the Museum, Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Medium, cell, virus and cell culture
The medium utilized was Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) (Sigma Co.) containing Eagle's balanced salt solution supplemented with either 1 or 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 U of penicillin per milliliter, 25 μg of gentamicin per
Results and discussion
In our screening program, the ethanol extract of the flowers of T. chinensis showed antiviral activities against Para 3 with IC50 value of 77.5 μg/ml and SI value of 2.0 (Table 1). Following bioassay-guided isolation, total flavonoids and three compounds were isolated from the ethanol extract. The antiviral activities of the total flavonoids, proglobeflowery acid, orientin, and vitexin isolated from T. chinensis against Para 3 were also shown in Table 1. Although the total flavonoids showed
Acknowledgements
Partial support was received from Industrial Support Fund (AF/281/97).
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