Senecio And The Amount Of River Senecio Chemical Composition And Biological Activity

Senecio scandens Buch. -Ham., as one species of Senecio genus of Compositae family, distributes mainly in the East, South, South west, Shannxi and Gansu Province of Chian. The taste of this plant is biter and cool. It is a traditional Chinese medicine with the functions of clearing away heat and removing toxic substances, cooling blood to dissipate blood stasis and liver-clearing and improving acuity of sight. As one kind of folk medicines, it's usually used to treat furunculosis edema pain, bites of pest and snake, upper respiratory tract infection, tonsillitis, laryngopharyngitis, pneumonia, eye conjunctivitis, dysentery, bone marrow hematopoietic dysfunction, encephalitis and anemia. Senecio argunensis Turcz., whose another name is "Zhan Long Cao", as one species of Senecio genus of Compositae family, distributes mainly in the North east, North west and South of China. It has been registered in some local pharmacopeia. The whole herb has medicinal uses with the functions of clearing away heat and removing toxic substances. It's usually used to treat bites of pest and snake, acute conjunctivitis, furunculosis edema pain, bone marrow hematopoietic dysfunction, encephalitis and anemia. Modern pharmaceutical studies showed that S. scandens possesses the effects on antibiotic, antivirus and antioxidant etc.. This paper preliminary studied the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the extracts of S. scandens and S. argunensis using DPPH·free radical-scavenging systems,β-carotene/linoleic acid system and Oxford cup method. We also analyzed the fat-soluble constituents and volatile components of different parts of S. scandens and S. argunensis by gas chromatography-mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The main results were as follows:(1) Volatile components from the stems, leaves and flowers of S. scandens and S. argunensis were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), respectively. 30, 35 and 36 compounds were identified in stems, leaves and flowers of S. scandens, respectively.The main volatile compounds in stems of S. scandens were palmitic acid (50.2%), linoleic acid (23.12%) and linolenic acid methyl ester (15.52%). The main volatile compounds in leaves of S. scandens were palmitic acid (50.2%), linolenic acid methyl ester (18.35%), phytol (11.13%) and linoleic acid (9.02%). The main volatile compounds in flowers of 5. scandens were palmitic acid (37.14%) and linoleic acid (7.47%). 43, 36 and 36 compounds were identified in stems, leaves and flowers of S. argunensis, respectively. The main volatile compounds in stems of S. argunensis were palmitic acid (43.74%),β-cubebene (21.38%) and linoleic acid (13.15%). The main volatile compounds in leaves of S. argunensis were palmitic acid (39.62%), linolenic acid methyl ester (23.39%) and linoleic acid (14.85%). The main volatile compounds in flowers of S. argunensis wereβ-cubebene (18.68%) and selina-6-en-4-ol (15.52%).(2) Fat-soluble constituents from the roots, stems, leaves and flowers of S. scandens and S. argunensis were obtained by Soxlet extraction, derivated by methyl esterification and identified by gas chromatography-mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), respectively. 28, 31, 41 and 33 compounds were identified in roots, stems, leaves and flowers of S. scandens, respectively. The main fat-soluble compounds in roots of S. scandens were linoleic acid (48.03%), palmitic acid (22.19%) and oleic acid (10.51%). The main fat-soluble compounds in stems of S. scandens were linoleic acid (45.55%), palmitic acid (20.05%) and oleic acid (18.85%). The main fat-soluble compounds in leaves of S. scandens were linolenic acid (34.27%), linoleic acid (27.75%) and palmitic acid (15.92%). The main fat-soluble compounds in flowers of S. scandens were linoleic acid (26.53%), palmitic acid (24.06%) and oleic acid (22.53%). 32, 33, 14 and 21 compounds were identified in roots, stems, leaves and flowers of S. argunensis, respectively. The main fat-soluble compounds in roots of S. argunensis were linoleic acid (50.69%) and palmitic acid (20.84%). The main fat-soluble compounds in stems of S. argunensis were linoleic acid (45.76%), palmitic acid (19.85%) and linolenic acid (14.39%). The main fat-soluble compounds in leaves of S. argunensis were linolenic acid (27.08%), linoleic acid (19.09%) and palmitic acid (15.97%). The main fat-soluble compounds in flowers of S. argunensis were linoleic acid (18.44%), tetracosane (13.78%) and palmitic acid (12.23%).(3) The extracts from different organs (roots, stems, leaves and flowers) of S. scandens and S. argunensis, and extracts of different solevents from leaves of S. argunensis were subjected to screening for their possible in vitro antioxidant activities by using 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) free radical-scavenging assays andβ-carotene /linoleic acid system. And the contents of total phennolic compounds of different extracts were also determined. The results showed that all the extracts have dose-effect relationship in DPPH·free radical-scavenging assays. Among them, the extracts of the leaves both from S. scandens and S. argunensis exhibited the highest antioxidant activities among all of the extracts. The EC₅₀ value of the extracts from leaves from S. scandens is 0.0209±0.0005 (mg/mL), which is equivalent to synthetic antioxidant BHT (EC₅₀: 0.0206±0.0004 (mg/mL)). And the EC₅₀ value of extracts from leaves of S. argunensis is 0.0354±0.0005 (mg/mL). Among the extracts with different polarity solevents from leaves of S. argunensis and extracts with acetoacetate have the highest antioxidant activities both in DPPH·free radical-scavenging system andβ-carotene/linoleic acid system.(4) The extracts from different organs (roots, stems, leaves and flowers) of S. scandens and S. argunensis, and extracts of different solevents from leaves of S. argunensis were subjected to a screening for their possible antimicrobial activities by using the method of Oxford cup. The results showed that all the extracts were found to inhibit the growth of tested bacteria in some extent. At the tested concentration, the antimicrobial activities of extracts from different organs of S. scandens to Staphylococcus epidermidis are better than positive control Tetracycline hydrochloride. The Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae was sensitive to methanol extracts from leaves of S. argunensis, and the inhibition zone is 16.3±1.2 mm, which is close to Tetracycline hydrochloric-de(17.6±0.7 mm). The results also showed that the ethyl acetate extracts were found to inhibit the growth of all bacteria tested. And the inhibition effect of ethyl acetate extracts is better than n-butanol, water and petroleum ether extracts. Among these, Proteus vulgaris was the most sensitive bacteria, and it's inhibition zone is 22±2.4 mm.