Experimental Study On Anti-platelet Effect And Mechanism Of Flavonoids In Carthamus Tinctorius L..

The traditional Chinese medicine"Honghua"is a dry petal of Carthamus tinctorius L.. It is one of the most widely used traditional Chinese medicine for promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis.There are many components in it including carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, flavonoids and so on. It was proved that the extracts of Carthamus tinctorius L. is cardiovascular pharmacologically active in many aspects such as thrombosis prevention and alleviating myocardial ischemia damage. For several decades, though there have been many studies about Carthamus tinctorious L, the pharmacologically active inrgedients and the mechanisms of their effects should be studied further. Safflor Yellow (SY)is an effective compenent of Carthamus tinctorious and Hydroxysafflor Yellow A is the higest content ingredient of SY and Myricetin is a flavonol newly identified from Carthamus tinctorious. We found for the first time that both aqueous and alcoholic extracts from Carthamus tinctorious are effective in inhibiting rabbit platelet aggregation induced by platelet activating factor (PAF). Sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China and other foundations, we have proved by systemic experiments that many components including Safflor Yellow and some flavones are PAF receptor antagonist. One of the mechanisms of the cardiovascular pharmacological effect of Carthamus tinctorious L. was discovered in the results and it is theoretically and practically significant. The experiments can be summarized as the following.1. Determination of Safflor yellow in Carthamus tinctorius L. by spectrophotometryWe have established a spectrophotometric technique for the determination of Safflor yellow in Carthamus tinctorius L. and have provided a method for use in quality control of Carthamus tinctorius L.. In this test Safflor yellow in aqueous extract of Carthamus tinctorius L. was measured through the absorbance of 403nm and the standard substance was Hydroxysafflor yellow A.It was shown that the linearity of Hydroxysafflor yellow A was good in the range of 10.8 ~75.6×10-3 mg·ml-1. Regression equation: Y = 0.0120 + 37.2 X ( r = 0.9999 ). The RSD of each of the three tests were 1.93 %,1.63 %,1.64 %( n= 10) respectively and the RSD of the means of this three tests was 1.44%.The recoveries of three paralized tests were 98.0 %, 98.5 %, 101.4 %, individually. The contents of Safflor yellow in Carthamus tinctorius L was measured. produced in several provinces were 5.01 ~ 7.21 %.