Studies On Chemical Constituents Of Potentilla Chinensis Ser

Potentilla chinensis Ser., the entire plant ofPotentilla chinensis Ser in Rosaceae, it was widely used and included by Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China as a Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat diarrhea, rheumatoid ache, paralysis, epilepsy, scabies, etc., while only a few studies on chemical constituents were reported besides our group's work. Potentilla discolor Bge., another medical plant of the same genus, showed significant activities on Type-2 diabetes in vivo and vitro. Potentilla chinensis Ser. is often used to treat Type-2 diabetes in stead of Potentilla discolor Bge. due to the similar morphological characteristics.In order to understand its chemical constituents and find active compounds, thechemical constituents of the 95% ethanol extract of Potentilla chinensis Ser wereinvestigated.Twenty-two compounds were isolated by column chromatographic methods using silica gel, Diaion HP-20, ODS and Sephadex LH-20. On the basis of chemical evidence and spectral analysis, the structures of nineteen compounds were elucidated as apigenin (1), querceitin (2), rutin (3), ellagic acid-3, 3'-dimethyl ether (4), ellagic acid-3,3',4-trimethyl ether (5), kaemferol-3-O-β-D-glucoside (6), kaemferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside (7), apigenin-6-β-D-glucoside (8), apigenin-7-O-β-D glucuronide (9), Potengriffioside A (10), gallic acid (11), benzoic acid (12), ursolic acid (13), oleanolic acid (14),β-sitosterol (15), daucostarine (16), potentin A (17), fupenzic acid (18), 2-oxo-pomolic acid(19).Among them, compound 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 19 were isolated from this plant for the first time. Compound 8 was first isolated from genus potentilla, and compound 17 is a new compound.According previous reports, we considered that the flavone constituents such as querceitin, apigenin-7-O-β-D -glucuronide might have effect on Type-2 diabetes. We did not carry out pharmacological experiment.Our studies demonstrated that these two plants possessed similar main organic constituents, which offered the chemical rationality for the analogical usage of Potentilla chinensis Ser. in treatment of Type-2 diabetes in folk. Definite conclusions must be based on further pharmacological experiments.