Chicken Feet, Taro Chemical Composition And Pharmacological Studies

Araceae have 115 families altogether and more than 2000 species all around the world. Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown belongs to Amorphophallus Blume family which has 163 species distributed in some of the Asian and African. In China, Amorphophallus Blume family have only 18 species and Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown is only planted in Guangdong Guangxi Hainan Yunnan Provinces.The local people very cherished it as a valuable plant to cure gastritis and hepatitis and used it in many daily soups. Although it has been recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica and Guangdong Chinese Traditional Medicine Records, it hardly had any research papers about its chemical constituents and pharmacological activities. In order to develop this plant as a medicinal resource, the chemical constituents of its extraction and its pharmacological researches to the mice have been studied in this paper.To confirm its curative effect on liver which was recorded in documents, the protective effect of Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown on experimental liver injury in mice has been studied. Mice were fed with 95% ethanol extraction and the dose is 100,200,400mg/kg respectively for eight days. Then the experimental model of liver injury was induced by 7% D-CaL-N in mice. The serological ALT,AST and liver MDA were measured to evaluate the protective effect of Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown on experimental injury in mice. The result showed that the 95% ethanol extraction can depress the concentrations of ALT and AST when the dose is high enough, but MDA was lowed down rapidly in the same dose. So Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown extraction showed some protective effects against liver injury induced by D-CaL-N. The results would be more significant if the dose was increased or the potential compounds can be separated.After its curative effect was confirmed, the chemical constituents of itsextraction were studied. We extracted the roots of Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown with solvent and separated with chromatographic methods. Seven compounds were isolated and identified from extraction. These compounds were Stigmasterol B -sitosterol Palmitic acid , ethyl ester Hexadecanoic acid, 2-hydroxy-l-l(hydroxymenthyl)ethyl ester, 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acid ethyl ester Docosanoic acid, ethyl ester. The mother liquid of II was identified by GC-MS, 7 compounds were identified. They are Dodecahydro -1H -fluorine , 2-Butylbicyclol[2,,2,l]heptane 2-phenylbicyclo[3,2,l]oct-2-ene3-propyl-cyclohexene 1-[4-methylphenyl]-3-[2-furyl]propanetrans-8-Isopropylbicyclo[4,3,0]non-3-ene7-Ethynyl-1,4a-dimethyl-4a,5,6,7,8,8a-hexahydro-2[lH]-naphthalenon. We also identified 6 compounds from the Fraction VI VII VIII by GC-MS. They are 4-Methylcyclohexyl propylphosphonofluoridoate 2(3H)-Benzothiazolone 1-(Benzthiazol-2-ylthio)-propan-2-one Phthalic acid, dibutyl ester Diisooctyl phthalate, 2,2'-Bibenzothiazole. 25 compounds were identified from petroleum ether eluent of Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown by GC-MS method.. This fraction was found to contain mainly alkane fatty acid fatty acid ester aklanol.We checked the physiological activities of compounds we have identified. The potential fractions of Amorphallus virosus N.e.Brown for curing hepatitis were discussed. 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acid ethyl ester is one of the effective components for curing hepatitis. The other effective constituents maybe in the residua which cannot be dissolved by acetone.