• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.50-54
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• 2009

A simple and reliable reversed phase HPLC method was developed to determine pharmacologically active compounds ent-continentalic acid, kaurenoic acid, and continentalic acid from the roots of Aralia cordata. Quantitative analysis of diterpenoids of A. cordata were performed by reverse phase C-18 column using a isocratic of acetonitrile : 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid(70:30) with UV detection at 205 nm. The correlation coefficients of each calibration curve of ent-continentalic acid, kaurenoic acid, and continentalic acid were 0.9987, 0.9983, and 0.9986, respectively. The detection limit of ent-continentalic acid, kaurenoic acid, and continentalic acid were $0.5{\sim}1.0\;{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. The contents of ent-continentalic acid (1), kaurenoic acid (2), and continentalic acid (3) of the roots of A. cordata collected from seventeen district markets in Korea were $0.09{\sim}0.75\;mg/g$, $1.09{\sim}5.43\;mg/g$, and $2.69{\sim}9.08\;mg/g$, respectively.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.215-226
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• 2024

Aralia continentalis is widely distributed in Far East Asian countries such as Korea, China, and Japan. A. continentalis has traditionally been used as an herbal remedy for various conditions, including analgesia, headache, inflammation, lameness, lumbago, rheumatism, and dental diseases in Korea. Previously, epi-continentalic acid, continentalic acid, and kaurenoic acid as major active biological compounds belonging to the diterpenoid class were identified. To synthesize diterpenoid derivatives with enhanced bioavailability, Fusarium fujikuroi was employed to biotransform diterpenoids due to its known antibacterial activity. This yielded two derivatives of kaurenoic acid, namely 16α-hydroxyent-kauran-2-on-19-oic acid and 2β, 16α-dihydroxy-ent-kauran-19-oic acid, with their chemical structures elucidated via NMR analysis. These derivatives exhibited increased polarity compared to kaur- enoic acid, as evidenced by their retention time on preparative HPLC using the ODS-A column and structural modifications. Evaluation of their antidiabetic activity targeting PTP1B, a negative regulator of the insulin signaling pathway, revealed inhibitory activities of 30.8% and 27.6%, respectively, at a concentration of 4 ㎍/ml. Additionally, both derivatives demonstrated low cytotoxicity, with an IC50 value 18 times higher than kaurenoic acid. Therefore, the augmented water solubility and reduced toxicity of 16α-hydroxy-ent-kauran-2-on-19-oic acid and 2β, 16α-dihydroxy-ent-kauran-19-oic acid, resulting from biotransformation by F. fujikuroi, render them promising candidates for industrial applications.