Biological Activity and Safety of Tripterygium Extract Prepared by Sodium Carbonate Extraction

Molecules

Wei Fang¹  Fan Peng¹  Tao Yi¹  Cong Zhang¹  Chunxi Wan¹  Huibi Xu¹  Christopher Waikei Lam¹ 

[1] ¹College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China ²State Key Laboratory for Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China ^†These authors contributed equally to this work.

关键词: Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F.;    active components;    sodium carbonate extraction;    toxicity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules170911113

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The commercial preparation named “Tripterygium glycosides” prepared by column chromatography has been used for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with significant efficacy but concurrent toxicity. The aim of this study was to reduce the toxicity of Tripterygium extracts, using cytotoxicity and anti-inflammatory activity of the three principal active components of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F. (TWHF) as guiding parameters. Column chromatography was replaced by sodium carbonate extraction for removing the acidic compounds and enriching epoxyditerpenoids and alkaloids in the extract. Results showed that the therapeutic index (IC₅₀/EC₅₀) on murine macrophage Raw 264.7 cells and rat mesangial HBZY-1 cells of the extract prepared by sodium carbonate extraction was significantly higher than that of Tripterygium glycosides (0.8 and 5.2 vs. 0.3 and 2.6, p < 0.05), while its cytotoxicity on human liver HL7702 cells was significantly lower (14.5 ± 1.4 vs. 6.8 ± 0.9, p < 0.05). Further acute oral toxicity experiments showed that the LD₅₀ value of this extract was 1,210 mg/kg compared to 257 mg/kg for Tripterygium glycosides. All the above results suggest that Tripterygium extract prepared by sodium carbonate extraction may represent a potentially optimal source of medicine with good therapeutic index.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.