Effective Constituents Of Kai-Xin-San, A Basic TCM Prescription For A Therapy Of Alzheimer's Disease

Kai-Xin-San is a widely used prescription in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of dementia and other related syndromes. It may have potentials to be developed as a therapy for Alzheimer's disease. In this thesis study, we have systematically investigated the chemical constituents of the bioactive fractions of Kai-Xin-San (KXS) and established the mechanisms and scientific basis for the therapeutic effects of KXS in treating dementia. In addition, based on the present study and other results in literature, we have discussed the development of standard methodology and general approaches in TCM modernization.Thirty-seven different chemical compounds have been isolated from KXS by utilizing absorbent resin, silica gei, C18-reversed silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 Open-column chromatography, medium-pressure liquid chromatography (MPLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Their structures were elucidated to be ginsenosides (1¹7), onjisaponins (18³5) and sugar esters (40⁴1) with the use of various spectroscopic methods (e.g. UV, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, DEPT, 1H-1H cosy, HMQC, HMBC, TOCSY, ESI-MSⁿ, FAB-MS). Among the identified ginsenosides, ginsenoside Roa(17) is a new oleananic acid saponin, and this was the first time that notoginsenoside R₂ (6) and pseudoginsenoside RC₁ (9) were isolated from Panax ginseng in KXS. All Onjisaponins belong to the class of oleananic acid saponins, with 13 of them as new compounds and named as onjisaponin O (20), Pg (23), Qg (24), L (25), J (27), R (31), S (32), Sg (34), T (33), Ug (35), and Z-onjisaponin L (26), J (28) and Z-Polygalasaponin XXXII (30) respectively. Z-senegin IV (22) and...