Volume 165, 13 May 2015, Pages 141–147
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
The bark of Cinnamomum cassia,
called ‘Rou-Gui’, a traditional spice and medicine in China, is used to
treat diseases resulted from kidney yang deficiency, including diabetic
nephropathy. The aim of this study is to investigate the anti-diabetic
nephropathy activity of Rou-Gui and the active compounds in it.
Materials and methods
The air-dried bark of C. cassia
was extracted with 90% EtOH, the obtained residue was successively
partitioned by petroleum ether, EtOAc, and n-BuOH followed by
concentrating to give petroleum ether (RG-1), EtOAc (RG-2), n-BuOH
(RG-3), and water fraction (RG-4), respectively. The anti-diabetic
nephropathy activity of fraction (RG-1–4) was evaluated in vitro
by inhibiting the expression of fibronectin, monocyte chemoattractant
protein-1 and interleukin-6 in high-glucose-induced mesangial cells. By
bioassay screenings, repeated column chromatography on fractions of
RG-1, 2, and 3, led to the isolation of 23 compounds, whose structures
were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses, and the
anti-diabetic nephropathy activity of the isolated compounds was also
evaluated.
Results
Four new sesquiterpenoids, cinnamoids A−D (1−4), a new natural product (5), and 18 known compounds (6−23) were isolated from the EtOH extract of the bark of C. cassia
under the bioassay-guided screenings. The anti-diabetic nephropathy
activity assay showed that fractions of RG-1, 2, and 3 could
significantly inhibit the production of fibronectin, monocyte
chemoattractant protein-1 and interleukin-6 in high-glucose-stimulated
mesangial cells at the concentration of 50 μg/ml; and sesquiterpenoids 5, 6, 14 and compound 20
could significantly inhibit the expression of fibronectin, monocyte
chemoattractant protein-1 and interleukin-6 at the concentration of
50 μM.
Conclusions
The results revealed that sesquiterpenoids may be the active compounds in C. cassia
bark on diabetic nephropathy which provided new evidences for the
traditional use of this herb to treat diabetic nephropathy and
associated kidney diseases.
Chemical compounds studied in this article
- clovane-2β;
- 9α-diol (PubChem CID: 15599878);
- caryolane-1;
- 9β-diol (PubChem CID: 44559977);
- cinnzeylanol (PubChem CID: 44559448);
- cinnamaldehyde (PubChem CID: 637511);
- cinnamic acid (PubChem CID: 444539);
- cinnamyl alcohol (PubChem CID: 5315892)
Keywords
- Cinnamomum cassia;
- Sesquiterpenoids;
- Fibronectin;
- Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1;
- Interleukin-6;
- Diabetic nephropathy
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