Study On The Distribution Of Phenanthrene Components In Six Medicinal Plants Of The Genus Juncus And Their Anti-anxiety Effects

According to herbal books,there are 15 Juncus medicinal plants in China,whose efficacy are mainly classified into three categories:clearing heat and freeing strangury,eliminating excess heart fire and removing fretfulness;clearing heat and diuresis;regulating the flow of vital energy and the menstrual function.Their medicinal parts rang from the medullae,root to the whole herb.Our previous study indicated that the phenanthrenes in Juncus plants were the active constituents of antianxiety,which were the basis of clearing away the heart fire and relieving restlessness.Recent studies have reported the distribution of the phenanthrenes in the medulla or the whole herb of Juncus effusus and Juncus setchuensis,while ignoring other Juncus medicinal plants and the underground part of other Juncus medicinal plants.In order to grasp the distribution of the phenanthrenes in Juncus medicinal plants and their anxiolytic activity comprehensively,this paper studied material medica about Juncus medicinal plants firstly.Then the distribution of the phenanthrenes in the aerial part and the underground part was analyzed and the phenanthrenes in the underground part of Juncus setchuensis were isolated and identified.Finally,the elevated plus-maze(EPM)was used to evaluate the anxiolytic activity of these phenanthrees.The review part summarized the structure and biological activity of phenanthrenes in Juncus plants and the species of Juncus medicinal plants in ancient herbal books.The experimental part included the study on the distribution of phenanthrenes in Juncus medicinal plants,separation and structural identification of phenanthrenes in the underground part of Juncus setchuensis and the research of phenanthrenes with anxiolytic activity.1.The paper investigated the distribution of Juncus medicinal plants in China,collected six Juncus medicinal plants from different places and analyzed phenanthrenes in different medicinal parts of Juncus medicinal plants by HPLC in order to clarify the distribution of the phenanthrenes.The result indicated that Juncus effusus and Juncus comppressus mainly contained effusol,dehydroeffusol,juncus ol,and dehydrojuncusol.Juncus prismatocarpus,Juncus diastrophanthus and Juncus alatus primarily contained juncuenin B and dehydrojuncuenin B.Juncus setchuensis contained more phenanthrenes including juncuenin A and dehydrojuncuenin A,except six phenanthrenes mentioned above.2.According to the features of UV absorption and 1H NMR of phenanthrenes,phenanthrenes in the EtOAc fraction of the underground part of Juncus setchuensis were riched by traditional column chromatography.The compounds were identified by mass spectrometry and NMR and MS.Eleven compounds from the underground part of Juncus setchuensis were isolated by a combination of various chromatographic techniques,and nine compounds were identified as juncuenin H(2-hydroxy-1,7-dimethyl-8-vinyl-9,10-dihyrophe-nanthrene),effusol,juncusol,dehydroeffusol,dehydrojuncusol,juncuenin B,dehydrojuncue-nin B,juncuenin A and dehydrojuncuenin A.3.The elevated plus-maze(EPM)was used to evaluate the anxiolytic activity of these phenanthrenes.The experimental results showed that the four phenanthrenes had the anxiolytic activity.