Studies On The Chemical Constituents Of The Aerial Parts Of Ligusticum Sinense Oliv. Cv.Chaxiong

Chaxiong belongs to the species of Ligusticum of the Umbelliferae family, which is endemic to Jiangxi province. The rhizome of it has been used as the substitute for Chuanxiong. The preliminary study of rhizome of Chaxiong have found that there are the similary component as Chuanxiong, mainly the mono-and dimeric-phthalides. The aerial parts of Chaxiong have always been thrown away without any research. In order to find novel compounds with new structures and significant activities, to explain the different chemical constituents in different parts of the same plant, we conducted the chemical research to the95%ethanol extracts of the aerial parts of Chaxiong. The bioactivities of the purified compounds were test on several pharmacological models with the support of pharmacological staff.Based on a variety of chromatographic techniques, eighty-eight compounds have been isolated from an ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Chaxiong, and their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods (Names and structures of the purified compounds are listed in Table1and Fig.1). These compounds included nineteen mono-phthalides, eight phthalide dimmers, six phthalide glycosides, two phenolic glycosides, six flavonoids, nine quinic acids, eleven sesquiterpenoids, five coumarins, three triterpenes and seventeen other types of compounds. Among them, compounds9*,15*,16*,18*,20*,25*,26*,33*,37*-43*,48*,49*,52*,53*,59*,64*,65*,67*and72*were new compounds and compounds2**,7**,13**,27**and71**were new natural products. Notably, new compounds37*-39*were the first report about the phthalide dimmers comprising of ligustilide and sedanolide, which enriched the phthalide dimmers types.In the in vitro assays, compounds9*,25*,33*,37*,46and52*have showed moderate protective effect against neuronal impairment induced by deprival of oxygen and glucose at10μM. Compounds38*and41*showed some extent of cytotoxcity against Hela cell line with IC50of22.29μM and14.52μM, respectively. Compounds7**,9*,25*,36and50exhibited moderate hepatoprotective activities against D-galactosamine-induced HL-7702cell damage. Compounds9*,15*and52*showed obviously hepatoprotective activities against APAP-induced HepG2cell damage.