Chemical Constituents And Bioactivities Of Celosia Cristata L. And Penthorum Chinense Pursh

Hepatic injury is a fundamental pathological process in most chronic hepatic diseasesand longstanding hepatic injury leads to hepatic fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, and evenhepatocellular carcinoma. Investigations have indicated that some herbal extracts and theirchemical constituents can significantly inhibit these aforementioned pathologic processesand protect hepatocytes against the etiologies of chronic hepatic injury.Celosia cristata L.(Family-Amaranthaceae) is recorded in Dian Nan's Herbal. Infolklore practice, the seeds of Celosia cristata L. has been used traditionally for removingliver-heat, improving eyesight, clearing wind-heat, lowering the blood pressure and anti-inflammation. Penthorum chinense Pursh is used in Chinese medicine as remedy forjaundice, edema and traumatic injury.In order to study the chemical constituents of Celosia cristata L. seeds andPenthorum chinense Pursh, further chemical study on the two plants was carried out. Thestructures were identified on the basis of chemical and spectral analysis (IR, EI-MS, ESI-MS,¹H-NMR,¹³C-NMR and2D NMR) and by comparison with the data reported inliterature.From Celosia cristata L., eighteen compounds were isolated and fifteen compoundswere identified, they were p-hydroxyphenylethanol (AC-1), kaempferol (AC-2), quercetin(AC-3), cristatain (AC-4), celosin A (AC-5), celosin B (AC-6), celosinâ… (AC-7), celosinâ…¡(AC-8), sphingosine (AC-9), β-sitosterol (AC-10), stearic acid (AC-11), stigmasterol (AC-12), daucosterol (AC-13), palmitinic acid (AC-14), n-hexacosoic acid (AC-15). Amongthese compounds, AC-4was found to be a new compound, named cristatain by author.From Penthorum chinense Pursh, twenty-one compounds were isolated and nineteencompounds were identified, they were daucosterol (PC-1), quercetin (PC-2), kaempferol(PC-3), lupeol (PC-4), ursolic acid (PC-5), palmitinic acid (PC-6), β-sitosterol (PC-7),apigenin (PC-8), luteolin (PC-9), betulic acid (PC-10), scopoletin (PC-11), pinocembrin(PC-12), penthorin (PC-13), gallic acid (PC-14), quercetin-3-O-glucoside (PC-15),mangiferin (PC-16), quercetin-3-O-rhiamnoside (PC-17), chebulic acid (PC-18)brervifolincaboxylic acid (PC-19). Among these compounds, PC-13was found to be a newcompound, named penthorin by author.The present study investigated the hepatoprotective effects of cristatain against theCCl₄-induced and DMF-induced liver injury. The mice were administrated orally with total ethanol extract at1.0mg·kg-1-4.0mg·kg-1doses, respectively, for3days. The resultsshowed that cristatain remarkably lowered the serum AST, ALT and ALP compared to themodel group (P<0.01). The histopathological hepatic lesions induced by administration ofCCl₄were remarkably ameliorated by cristatain. We compared the hepatoprotective effectof pinocembrin, quercetin, kaempferol and luteolin, indicating that luteolin displayhepatoprotective property in CCl4induced liver injury in mice.This study lays a foundation for the utilization of Celosia cristata L. and Penthorumchinense Pursh..