Chemical Components From Daemonorops Draco

Objectives: Dragon’s blood is a traditional precious Chinese medicine,which has the reputation of "blood rejuvenation." According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia of the 2020 edition,it is processed from the resin exuded from the fruit of the Arecaceae family Daemonorops draco Blume,which is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Southeast Asia,such as Indonesia,Malaysia,Iran,and other places,and is also cultivated in a small amount in China.Previous studies have found that phenolic compounds,especially flavonoids are the main chemical constituents of dragon’s blood.That’s why the research on pharmacological activities mainly focused on total flavonoid extracts,but less on monomer research,which means the research on dragon’s blood is insufficient.Therefore,in order to further research,this subject conducted a systematic study on the separation,identification,and pharmacological activities of the chemical components of dragon’s blood,with the hope of finding valuable active substances,enriching the types of chemical components in dragon’s blood,providing reference for the research and development of innovative drugs,and providing a basis for clarifying the material basis of the medicinal effects and clinical applications of dragon’s blood.Methods: The powdered red resin of D.draco(20 kg)was extracted four times with80% Et OH at room temperature(60 L × 4,24 h each).Subsequently,the collected extracts were combined and evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure using a rotary evaporator.Then the dry residue was suspended in distilled water and partitioned with ethyl acetate(Et OAc).The Et OAc extract was separated by various chromatographic materials(such as MCI gel CHP 20 P,YMC-GEL ODS-A-HG,Sephadex LH-20,and silica gel)and separation methods(including VLC,PTLC,and HPLC)to obtain monomers.The structure of these compounds including their absolute configurations was determined by spectroscopy methods(1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS)and ECD calculations.Some compounds were tested for their anti-renal fibrosis activities in rat kidney proximal tubular cells(NRK-52E).Results: 53 compounds,including 30 new compounds and 23 known compounds,were isolated from the Et OAc extract of dragon’s blood.Compounds 1–26 are flavonoids,among which,compounds 1–12 are flavanes,compounds 13–22 are dihydrochalcones,compound23 is a flavane dimer,compounds 24–26 are flavane-chalcone dimers;Compounds 27–29 are furanones;Compounds 30–38 are phenylpropanoids;Compounds 39–53 are other categories.Biological results showed that compound 16 could dose-dependently inhibit the expression of fibronectin,collagen I,and α-SMA in TGF-β1 induced NRK-52 E cells.Conclusions: This study led to the isolation of 30 new compounds,including flavonoids,furanones,and phenols,which enrich the structural diversity of substances in dragon’s blood to a certain extent and provided the basis for clarifying the material basis of its efficacy.In addition,the pharmacological activity screening of some compounds showed that compound16 exhibited anti-renal fibrosis activity,which provided ideas for the research and development of new drugs and clinical application of dragon’s blood.