• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1376-1380
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• 2005

In this study, ethanolic extracts from 18 seaweed variants were assessed for hepatoprotective activity against tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells. Only one of these, Ecklonia stolonifera Okamura (Laminariaceae), a member of the brown algae, exhibited promising hepatoprotective activity. Bioassay-guided fractionation of the active ethyl acetate (EtOAc) soluble fraction obtained from the ethanolic extract of E. stolonifera, resulted in the isolation of several phlorotannins [phloroglucinol (1), eckstolonol (2), eckol (3), phlorofucofuroeckol A (4), and dieckol (5)]. Compounds 2 and 4 were determined to protect Hep G2 cells against the cytotoxic effects of tacrine, with $EC_{50}$ values of 62.0 and 79.2 $\mu$g/mL, respectively. Silybin, a well characterized hepatoprotective agent, was used as a positive control, and exhibited an $EC_{50}$ value of 50.0 $\mu$g/mL. It has been suggested that the phlorotannins derived from marine brown algae might prove useful sources in the development of novel hepatoprotective agents.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.345-350
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• 2009

Activity-guided fractionation of the EtOH extract of flowers of Bidens bipinnata L. have been furnished five flavonoids, sulfuretin(1), butein(2), 7,8,3',4'-tetrahydroxyflavanone(3), maritimetin(4) and okanin(5). All of the compounds showed significant activities on both linoleic acid peroxidation inhibition and DPPH radical scavenging effect. The evaluation for protective effect of isolated compounds against tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in human liver-derived Hep G2 cells was conducted. Compounds 1, 3, 4 and 5 showed significant protective effects with the $EC_{50}$ values of $36.1{\pm}0.9$, $23.3{\pm}0.7$, $41.0{\pm}1.0$ and $29.8{\pm}1.1{\mu}M$, respectively. Silybin, one of the well-known hepatoprotective agents, used as a positive control, and also showed protective effect with an $EC_{50}$ value of $84.3{\pm}0.7{\mu}M$.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.209-219
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• 2013

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a molecular chaperone that assists protein folding and contributes to the stability of various proteins. It also stabilizes a number of proteins involved in tumor growth to consider it as a promising target for the treatment of cancer. Natural products have been a rich source of agents of value in medicine, therefore discovering lead compounds from them is one of important strategy in the drug development. In this regard, geldanamycin, radicicol, novobiocin and celastrol have been utilized as leads for the development of Hsp90 inhibitory anticancer agents. This review summerizes recent findings of natural products as Hsp90 inhibitiors. The Hsp90 inhibitory activities, mode of actions on Hsp90 and cytotoxicities on human cancer cell lines of natural products including bulgarialactone B, curcumin, (-)-gambogic acid, quercetin, sansalvamide A, silybin, and withaferin A were discussed.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.449-454
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• 2023

Free-living amoebae (FLA) rarely cause human infections but can invoke fatal infections in the central nervous system (CNS). No consensus treatment has been established for FLA infections of the CNS, emphasizing the urgent need to discover or develop safe and effective drugs. Flavonoids, natural compounds from plants and plant-derived products, are known to have antiprotozoan activities against several pathogenic protozoa parasites. The anti-FLA activity of flavonoids has also been proposed, while their antiamoebic activity for FLA needs to be emperically determined. We herein evaluated the antiamoebic activities of 18 flavonoids against Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba species which included A. castellanii and A. polyphaga. These flavonoids showed different profiles of antiamoebic activity against N. fowleri and Acanthamoeba species. Demethoxycurcumin, kaempferol, resveratrol, and silybin (A+B) showed in vitro antiamoebic activity against both N. fowleri and Acanthamoeba species. Apigenin, costunolide, (-)-epicatechin, (-)-epigallocatechin, rosmarinic acid, and (-)-trans-caryophyllene showed selective antiamoebic activity for Acanthamoeba species. Luteolin was more effective for N. fowleri. However, afzelin, berberine, (±)-catechin, chelerythrine, genistein, (+)-pinostrobin, and quercetin did not exhibit antiamoebic activity against the amoeba species. They neither showed selective antiamoebic activity with significant cytotoxicity to C6 glial cells. Our results provide a basis for the anti-FLA activity of flavonoids, which can be applied to develope alternative or supplemental therapeutic agents for FLA infections of the CNS.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.138-143
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• 2003

Total methanolic extract of Chrysanthemum coronarium L. var. spatiosum (Compositae) was revealed to have anti-hepatotoxic activity against galactosamine-induced toxicity on primary cultured rat hepatocytes. After successive partitioning with chloroform, n-butanol, and water, the chloroform fraction showed a significant inhibition activity of 51% at 50 ppm, compared with that of silybin, 45.9% at $100\;{\mu}M$. The chloroform fraction was subjected to silica gel column chromatography and yielded active CH-II, CH-V and CH-VI subfractions, and the anti-hepatotoxic activity of these subfractions were 47.6, 56.3, and 23.2%, respectively, at 50 ppm. Total glutathione contents of CH-II, CH-V, and CH-VI increased by 49.8, 43.9, and 47.5% of the control, respectively at 50 ppm, whereas that of silymarin was, 59.7% at $100\;{\mu}M$ after challenged with galactosamine. The ratio of (reduced glutathione) / (total glutathione) in CH-II, CH-V and CH-VI subfraction showed similar values of $0.86{\sim}0.87$ at 50 ppm, whereas that of silymarin was, 0.85 at $100\;{\mu}M$. The incorporation of $[^3H]-uridine$ uptake into RNA was not affected by these active subfractions.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.117-130
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• 2008

Korean traditional medicine has been used for the treatment of the various diseases based on both oriental medicinal theory and clinical trials. Thus, the prescriptions of Korean traditional medicine would be useful for the development of new therapeutics. This research focuses on the fundamental study in Korean traditional prescriptions for the development of new hepatoprotective agents. We found two prescriptions. Injinho-Tang and Osumogwa-Tang, showed the significant DPPH free radical scavenging and hepatoprotective effect, respectively. It is well-known that free radical scavenging effect is related to the prevention of various pathological events including liver injury. This paper deals with hepatoprotective effects on tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells, free radicals scavenging on both DPPH and superoxide of above two prescriptions. Hot water extract of Injinho-Tang did not show the significant hepatoprotective effect on tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells, however, it shows the significant scavenging effects for both DPPH and superoxide radicals. On the other hand, all of the hot water extracts of constituent herbal drugs in Injinho-Tang exhibited the promising protective effect on tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells. Of these, water extract of Rhei Rhizoma showed the most prominent effect on tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells. Bioassay-guided fractionation of Rhei Rhizoma extract has furnished four compounds, and their chemical structures have been identified by comparison of their spectral data with those of literature as chrysophanol (1), emodin (2), 3,5-dihydroxy-4'- methoxystilbene (3), and rhapontigenin (4), respectively. Among the isolated compounds, compounds 2-4 revealed the significant hepatoprotective effect in vitro when their $EC_{50}$ values compare with that of silybin, as a positive control. It also exhibited that emodin possessed the most hepatoprotective effect among these active compounds. In case of Osumogwa-Tang, its hot water extract showed the moderate protective effect on tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells. Hot water extract of Chaenomelis Fructus, one of the constituent herbal drug of this prescription, exhibited the significant hepatoprotective effect with $EC_{50}$ value of $7.8{\pm}0.1\;{\mu}g/ml$, however, it showed strong cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells above the concentration of $25\;{\mu}g/ml$. It was revealed that both hot water extract of Evodiae Fructus and its butanol soluble fraction showed the moderate hepatoprotective effect but concentration-dependent activity in Hep G2 assay system. Two quinolone alkaloids, evocarpine and dihydroevocarpine, also tested for their hepatoprotective effects on tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in Hep G2 cells, however, these two compounds derived from the Evodiae Fructus as the major constituents did not show in vitro hepatoprotective effect. From these results, it would be necessary to further isolation of its hepatoprotective compounds from the butanol soluble fraction of the hot water extract of Evodiae Fructus.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.442-449
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• 2017

We analyzed the content of total phenolic and silymarin compounds of Cirsium japonicum (CJ), and its antioxidant activities and Liver protective effects were compared with those of Silybum marianum (SM). The total phenolic content in the aerial part ($97.22{\pm}5.51mg/g$) of CJ is higher than that in the underground part ($85.32{\pm}3.06mg/g$). The total silymarin content of CJ was 55.56% of SM, with the underground part ($0.47{\pm}0.03mg/g$) having higher content than the aerial part ($0.18{\pm}0.02mg/g$). The antioxidant activity of CJ was generally slightly lower than that of milk thistle, and the underground part of CJ generally had higher activity compared to the aerial part. When CJ extracts were processed at 1 mg/ml, DPPH activities were $83.76{\pm}0.60$ and $88.28{\pm}0.17%$, and FRAP activities were $77.63{\pm}0.70$ and $82.83{\pm}0.39%$ for extracts from aerial part and underground part, respectively. ABTS activities were $68.60{\pm}1.24$ and $63.41{\pm}0.57%$ for underground and aerial part respectively when extracts were processed at 0.1 mg/ml. The Liver protective effects of CJ were higher in the extracts from underground part compared to the aerial part, Liver cells were damaged by treating them with t-BHP, $H_2O_2$ and Ethanol, and then they were treated with 0.2 mg/ml CJ extracts. The survival rates of the damaged liver cells were $49.58{\pm}0.34$, $76.87{\pm}1.10$ and $71.73{\pm}0.58%$ respectively, which were higher than the cells not treated with extracts.