• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.265-269
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• 2007

There is significant interest in finding new sources of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors for use in treating Alzheimer's disease, since only a few AChE inhibitors are available for clinical use, such as galanthamine, physostigmine, and tacrine. The ethanol extract of Chrysanthemum indicum Linne flowers was analyzed and found to markedly decrease AChE activity. Acaciin and $acacetin-7-O-{\beta}-D-galactopyranoside$ were identified as the active compounds responsible for the AChE inhibition by using an activity-guided fractionation strategy. The relationship between structure and activity for five flavonoids (acaciin, $acacetin-7-O-{\beta}-D-galactopyranoside$, luteolin, and two other commercially available flavonoids, i.e., apigenin and acacetin) was also investigated, revealing that the presence of methoxy groups at C-4' in the B ring and a sugar at O-7 in ring A appear to be essential for the inhibition of AChE.