BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF XANTHOANGELOL, A CHALCONE COMPOUND FROM ANGELICA KEISKEI, ON LIPID METABOLISM IN STROKE-PRONE SPONTANEOUSLY HYPERTENSIVE RATS

Randomised, double-blind, parallel group comparison of Ashitaba (Angelica Keiskei) chalcone effects on visceral fat areas and waist circumference of overweight persons

This randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group study aimed to determine whether encapsulated Ashitaba chalcone (16 mg comprising 10.1 mg 4-hydroxyderricin and 5.9 mg xanthoangelol) could reduce obesity in 17 men and 25 women with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to < 30. Participants ingested capsules containing either the chalcone or a placebo daily for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was changes in visceral fat areas determined by computed tomography (CT) at baseline, and at 8 and 12 weeks later. The primary endpoint, abdominal visceral fat area, was significantly reduced in the chalcone, compared with a placebo group 12 weeks after screening (p < 0.05). The secondary endpoint, waist circumference, was significantly decreased in the chalcone, compared with the placebo group at weeks 8 and 12 (p < 0.05 at week 8; p < 0.01 at week 12). Therefore, Ashitaba chalcone has anti-obesity benefits for overweight men and women.

Pharmacotherapeutics Applications and Chemistry of Chalcone Derivatives

Chalcones have been well examined in the extant literature and demonstrated antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties. A detailed evaluation of the purported health benefits of chalcone and its derivatives, including molecular mechanisms of pharmacological activities, can be further explored. Therefore, this review aimed to describe the main characteristics of chalcone and its derivatives, including their method synthesis and pharmacotherapeutics applications with molecular mechanisms. The presence of the reactive α,β-unsaturated system in the chalcone’s rings showed different potential pharmacological properties, including inhibitory activity on enzymes, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, and anti-filarial activity. Changing the structure by adding substituent groups to the aromatic ring can increase potency, reduce toxicity, and broaden pharmacological action. This report also summarized the potential health benefits of chalcone derivatives, particularly antimicrobial activity. We found that several chalcone compounds can inhibit diverse targets of antibiotic-resistance development pathways; therefore, they overcome resistance, and bacteria become susceptible to antibacterial compounds. A few chalcone compounds were more active than conventional antibiotics, like vancomycin and tetracycline. On another note, a series of pyran-fused chalcones and trichalcones can block the NF-B signaling complement system implicated in inflammation, and several compounds demonstrated more potent lipoxygenase inhibition than NSAIDs, such as indomethacin. This report integrated discussion from the domains of medicinal chemistry, organic synthesis, and diverse pharmacological applications, particularly for the development of new anti-infective agents that could be a useful reference for pharmaceutical scientists.

Angelica keiskei Root Extract Attenuates Bile Duct Ligation-Induced Liver Injury in Mice

Although multiple studies have shown that Angelica keiskei of the Umbelliferae family has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidative activities and that it reduces the serum bile acids in humans, whether A. keiskei has protective effects against cholestasis-induced liver injury remains unexplored until now. This study tests the hypothesis that Angelica keiskei root extract (AKE) alleviates liver injury, inflammation, and fibrosis in mouse models of acute cholestasis induced by bile duct ligation (BDL). Oral administration of AKE (200 or 500 mg/kg) attenuated hepatocellular necrosis and significantly reduced serum levels of bile acids and bilirubin in BDL mice. The critical enzyme of bile acid synthesis, CYP7A1, was repressed by AKE, suggesting that reduced bile acid production may contribute to liver protection. Moreover, we determined through gene expression and cytokine analysis and histological examination that AKE treatment decreased liver inflammation, oxidative stress, and fibrosis. AKE also suppressed the NF-κB pathway, suggesting this as a possible mediator of its anti-inflammatory effect. Our findings substantiate that AKE may be promising for treating cholestatic liver diseases in the future.

Chalcone Scaffolds, Bioprecursors of Flavonoids: Chemistry, Bioactivities, and Pharmacokinetics

Chalcones are secondary metabolites belonging to the flavonoid (C6-C3-C6 system) family that are ubiquitous in edible and medicinal plants, and they are bioprecursors of plant flavonoids. Chalcones and their natural derivatives are important intermediates of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. Plants containing chalcones have been used in traditional medicines since antiquity. Chalcones are basically α,β-unsaturated ketones that exert great diversity in pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, antitubercular, antiplasmodial, antileishmanial, immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, and so on. This review provides an insight into the chemistry, biosynthesis, and occurrence of chalcones from natural sources, particularly dietary and medicinal plants. Furthermore, the pharmacological, pharmacokinetics, and toxicological aspects of naturally occurring chalcone derivatives are also discussed herein. In view of having tremendous pharmacological potential, chalcone scaffolds/chalcone derivatives and bioflavonoids after subtle chemical modification could serve as a reliable platform for natural products-based drug discovery toward promising drug lead molecules/drug candidates.

Phytonutrient and anti-diabetic functional properties of flavonoid-rich ethanol extract from Angelica Keiskei leaves

An extraction method was optimized to get a flavonoid-rich ethanol extract from Angelica keiskei leaves (FREE-AK). Trace elements and total flavonoid content of FREE-AK were identified, and the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of FREE-AK were studied in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. For FREE-AK extraction the optimal conditions were 65% ethanol, 45 °C and 15 min, resulting in a total flavonoid content up to 10.18% and K, Mg, Na, and Ca, content of about 36.59, 1.52, 14.51 and 7.486 mg/g, respectively. FREE-AK uptake could cause a marked decrease of fasting blood glucose and a significant improvement on glucose tolerance in diabetic mice. In addition, FREE-AK treatment with a dose of 800 mg/kg b.w. resulted in a reduction in the total triglyceride level (TC) in serum. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of FREE-AK for hypoglycemia and hypolipidemia in streptozotocin-induced mice and FREE-AK may be a potential dietary treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Protective effects of an ethanol extract of Angelica keiskei against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in HepG2 and HepaRG cells

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Although Angelica keiskei (AK) has widely been utilized for the purpose of general health improvement among Asian, its functionality and mechanism of action. The aim of this study was to determine the protective effect of ethanol extract of AK (AK-Ex) on acute hepatotoxicity induced by acetaminophen (AAP) in HepG2 human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cells and HepaRG human hepatic progenitor cells.

MATERIALS/METHODS

AK-Ex was prepared HepG2 and HepaRG cells were cultured with various concentrations and 30 mM AAP. The protective effects of AK-Ex against AAP-induced hepatotoxicity in HepG2 and HepaRG cells were evaluated using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay, flow cytometry, and Western blotting.

RESULTS

AK-Ex, when administered prior to AAP, increased cell growth and decreased leakage of LDH in a dose-dependent manner in HepG2 and HepaRG cells against AAP-induced hepatotoxicity. AK-Ex increased the level of Bcl-2 and decreased the levels of Bax, Bok and Bik decreased the permeability of the mitochondrial membrane in HepG2 cells intoxicated with AAP. AK-Ex decreased the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and the activation of caspase-9, -7, and -3.

CONCLUSIONS

These results demonstrate that AK-Ex downregulates apoptosis via intrinsic and extrinsic pathways against AAP-induced hepatotoxicity. We suggest that AK could be a useful preventive agent against AAP-induced apoptosis in hepatocytes.

Therapeutic potential of chalcones as cardiovascular agents

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death affecting 17.3 million people across the globe and are estimated to affect 23.3 million people by year 2030. In recent years, about 7.3 million people died due to coronary heart disease, 9.4 million deaths due to high blood pressure and 6.2 million due to stroke, where obesity and atherosclerotic progression remain the chief pathological factors. The search for newer and better cardiovascular agents is the foremost need to manage cardiac patient population across the world. Several natural and (semi) synthetic chalcones deserve the credit of being potential candidates to inhibit various cardiovascular, hematological and anti-obesity targets like angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT), acyl-coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT), pancreatic lipase (PL), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), calcium (Ca(2+))/potassium (K(+)) channel, COX-1, TXA2 and TXB2. In this review, a comprehensive study of chalcones, their therapeutic targets, structure activity relationships (SARs), mechanisms of actions (MOAs) have been discussed. Chemically diverse chalcone scaffolds, their derivatives including structural manipulation of both aryl rings, replacement with heteroaryl scaffold(s) and hybridization through conjugation with other pharmacologically active scaffold have been highlighted. Chalcones which showed promising activity and have a well-defined MOAs, SARs must be considered as prototype for the design and development of potential anti-hypertensive, anti-anginal, anti-arrhythmic and cardioprotective agents. With the knowledge of these molecular targets, structural insights and SARs, this review may be helpful for (medicinal) chemists to design more potent, safe, selective and cost effective chalcone derivatives as potential cardiovascular agents.

Separation of two major chalcones from Angelica keiskei by high-speed counter-current chromatography

Angelica keiskei (Shin-sun cho) is an edible higher plant with the beneficial preventive effects on cancer, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Two bioactive chalcones of Shin-sun cho, xanthoangelol (1) and 4-hydroxyderricin (2), were separated simultaneously by using high-speed counter-current chromatography with a two-phase solvent system composed of n-hexane-EtOAc-MeOH-H2O (9:5:9:4). Only nonconsuming processes, solvent fractionations and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography, were conducted as presteps. Xanthoangelol (1, 35.9 mg, 99.9 % purity at 254 and 365 nm) and 4-hydroxyderricin (2, 4.4 mg, 98.7 % purity at 254 nm and 98.8 % purity at 365 nm) were successfully purified from 70 mg of the processed extract from A. keiskei. The structures of two compounds were confirmed by (1)H- and (13)C-NMR analysis.

Involvement of extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways together with endoplasmic reticulum stress in cell death induced by naphthylchalcones in a leukemic cell line: advantages of multi-target action

Chalcones, naturally occurring open-chain flavonoids abundant in plants, have demonstrated anticancer activity in multiple tumor cells. In a previous work, the potential anticancer activity of three naphthylchalcones named R7, R13 and R15 was shown. In this study, the mechanism of actions of these chalcones was originally shown. The chalcones presented concentration and time-dependent cytotoxicity. To determine the type of cell death induced by chalcones, we assessed a series of assays including measurements of the caspase-8, -9 and -12 activities, expression of important apoptosis-related genes and proteins, changes in the cell calcium concentration and cytochrome c release. The activities of caspase-8, -9 and -12 increased after the treatment of L1210 cells with the three compounds. Chalcones R7 and R13 induced an increase of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax, Bid and Bak (only chalcone R13), as well as a decrease in anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 expression. These chalcones also induced an increase in Fas and a decrease in p21 and p53 expression. Chalcone R15 seems to act by a different mechanism to promote cell death, as it did not change the mitochondrion-related proteins, nor did it induce the cytochrome c release. All compounds induced an increase in cell calcium concentration and an increase in CHOP expression, which together with an increase in caspase-12 activity, suggest that chalcones could induce an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Taken together, these results suggest that chalcones induce apoptosis by different pathways, being an interesting strategy to suggest for cancer therapy.

Compounds isolated from Psoralea corylifolia seeds inhibit protein kinase activity and induce apoptotic cell death in mammalian cells

Objectives

Psoralea corylifolia is a plant widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, e.g. for its chemopreventive effect. To identify active substances responsible for this effect, we investigated pharmacological effects of 11 compounds isolated from the seeds of this plant (newly described substances: 7, 2′, 4′-trihydroxy-3-arylcoumarin and psoracoumestan).

Methods

The influence of distinct compounds on different signal transduction pathways (cell proliferation, survival, angiogenesis and metastasis) was screened via analysis of the activity of 24 protein kinases, mitogen activated protein kinase phosphorylation via Western blot, cytotoxicity was shown using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and determination of caspase activity. Oxidative stress was detected via 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein fluorescence.

Key findings

Some compounds showed cytotoxic effects (H4IIE, Hct116, C6 cells) mainly mediated via induction of apoptosis. Distinct compounds caused a strong inhibition of MAPK/ERK kinase (MEK) phosphorylation, weak effects on extracellular-signal regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation and no significant effect on p38 and c-Jun amino-terminal kinase. Corylifol C and, to a lesser extent, xanthoangelol are potent protein kinase inhibitors (inhibitory concentration 50% values for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR): 1.1 and 4.4 × 10−6 μg/ml, respectively). Because EGFR, MEK and ERK are kinases involved in cellular proliferation, an inhibition of these enzymes may be useful to cause chemopreventive effects.

Conclusions

Distinct compounds isolated from P. corylifolia showed a high potential to influence cellular pathways, e.g. by inhibition of protein kinases that may be interesting for pharmacological purposes.

Systems Biology in a Commercial Quality Study of the Japanese Angelica Radix: Toward an Understanding of Traditional Medicinal Plants

The commercial quality of Japanese Angelica radices — Angelica acutiloba Kitagawa (Yamato-toki) and A. acutiloba Kitagawa var. sugiyama Hikino (Hokkai-toki) — used in Kampo traditional herbal medicines, was studied by use of omics technologies. Complementary and alternative medical providers have observed in their clinical experience that differences in radix commercial quality reflect the differences in pharmacological responses; however, there has been little scientific examination of this phenomenon. The approach of omics, including metabolomics, transcriptomics, genomics, and informatics revealed a distinction between the radix-quality grades based on their metabolites, gene expression in human subjects, and plant genome sequences. Systems biology, constructing a network of omics data used to analyze this complex system, is expected to be a powerful tool for enhancing the study of radix quality and furthering a comprehensive understanding of all medicinal plants.

Xanthoangelols isolated from Angelica keiskei inhibit inflammatory-induced plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) production

The folk medicine Angelica keiskei (Ashitaba) exhibits antitumor, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities and it has recently attracted attention as a health food. Ashitaba is thought to have antithrombotic properties, but this has not yet been scientifically proven. The elevation of plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), an inhibitor of fibrinolysis results in a predisposition to the risk of thrombosis. The present study showed that Ashitaba exudates injected intraperitoneally and orally administered over long-term suppressed the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced PAI-1 increase in mouse plasma. We also found that xanthoangelol, xanthoangelols B and D, the components of Ashitaba exudates, significantly inhibited TNFα-induced PAI-1 production from human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). These findings suggest that Ashitaba can decrease elevated PAI-1 production, and that daily consumption of Ashitaba product might maintain anticoagulant status by inhibiting elevations in PAI-1 under inflammatory conditions.