Ligustrosidic acid

Combination of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus with Ecliptae Herba and their phytoestrogen or phytoandrogen like active pharmaceutical ingredients alleviate oestrogen/testosterone-induced benign prostatic hyperplasia through regulating steroid 5-alpha-reductase.[Pubmed:35636178]

Phytomedicine. 2022 Jul 20;102:154169.

BACKGROUND: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a urinary system disease with high prevalence among the middle and elder men. In BPH, proliferation of prostate cells and the imbanlance between androgen and estrogen are both important inducers. Previous studies have demonstrated that compounds from Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (LLF) and Ecliptae Herba (EH) are of phytoestrogenic or phytoandrogenic activities. The combination of LLF with EH at the ratio of 1:1 on crude drugs quantity is called Erzhi formula (EZF), which is used for in vivo research of our study. PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate potential mechanisms of EZF and its active pharmaceutical ingredients on BPH in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: Therapeutic effects of EZF was evaluated in E(2)/testosterone (1:100) induced BPH rats model. The pathological changes of prostate, concentrations of testosterone, DHT, E(2), PSA in rats' plasma and prostate were detected. The expressions of PCNA, AR, ERalpha, ERbeta, SRD5A1, SRD5A2 were measured in BPH rat prostates and E(2)-stimulated human benign prostatic epithelial cells (BPH-1). RESULTS: EZF treatment significantly attenuated rat prostate enlargement, alleviated BPH pathological features, and decreased the expression of PCNA. The up-regulation of AR, ERalpha, SRD5A1/2 expressions, and down-regulation of ERbeta expression at prostate of rat BPH model were significantly blocked by EZF administration. The expression levels of testosterone, DHT, E(2), PSA were strongly inhibited by EZF treatment. At the cellular level, Ligustrosidic acid and echinocystic acid inhibited E(2)-induced BPH-1 cell proliferation and PCNA expressions, which were consistent with the results in vivo. And these two ingredients also down-regulated the expressions of AR, ERalpha, SRD5A1/2 and up-regulated the expression of ERbeta in BPH-1 cells. CONCLUSION: EZF, Ligustrosidic acid from LLF and echinocystic acid from EH showed inhibitive effects on BPH via down-regulating prostatic AR, ERalpha, SRD5A1/2 expressions and up-regulating ERbeta expression.

Discovery of minor quality evaluation marker compounds for Chinese patent medicine products using a two-leveled metabolomics strategy.[Pubmed:34214834]

J Chromatogr A. 2021 Aug 30;1652:462354.

Chinese patent medicines (CPMs) are popularly used in clinical practice. Though the composition is complex, the quality of CPM is usually evaluated by the contents of a few main compounds. In this study, a two-leveled metabolomics strategy was proposed to discover minor marker compounds for different CPM products. Zhenqi Fuzheng (ZQFZ) granule was studied an example, where 15 batches from 3 producers were analyzed. The samples were separated using UHPLC on an Acquity UPLC(R) HSS T3 column, and then detected using Q-Orbitrap-MS. In the first level, 1475 common peaks were extracted and 95 compounds were identified using diagnostic ions and a homemade database. In the second level, the data were subjected to a two-way hierarchical clustering analysis and screened by variable importance value. In total 14 marker compounds were discovered which were responsible for the grouping of different ZQFZ products. Echinacoside (22), oleoside (13), loganic acid (5), salidroside (7), Ligustrosidic acid (42), 6alpha-hydroxygeniposide (28), and oleoside 11-methyl ester (15) could be used to reflect the quality difference for ZQFZ granule products. The proposed strategy could also contribute to the discovery of quality control markers for other CPMs.

Seasonal variations in metabolite profiling of the fruits of Ligustrum lucidum Ait.[Pubmed:21598330]

Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2011 Jun 30;25(12):1701-14.

The metabolite profiling of fruits of the herb Ligustrum lucidum Ait collected during different months has been performed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/QTOFMS) and multivariate statistical analysis techniques. The markers such as oleuropein acid, neonuezhenide, specnuezhenide, oleuropein and Ligustrosidic acid accountable for such variations were identified through the loadings plot of principal component analysis (PCA), and the tentative identification of the markers is completed by comparing the mass spectra and retention times with those of reference compounds and/or tentatively assigned by matching empirical molecular formulae and MS/MS data with those of the known compounds published. Furthermore, one of the chemical markers, such as specnuezhenide, which is water-soluble, biologically active and also the predominant compound in this crude drug, was quantified by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a tunable UV detector (UPLC-TUV). The developed UPLC method provides good linearity (r(2)=0.9991), repeatability (RSD=2.96%), intra- and inter-day precisions (RSD=0.21%, 0.96%), with accuracies of 99.18-100.26% and a recovery of specnuezhenide of 97.57%. The fruits of L. lucidum Ait collected from August to December were tested. The results clearly show that the fruits of L. lucidum Ait harvested in October have the highest yields of specnuezhenide. It is also noted that the variations of content of specnuezhenide obtained by both methods have a strong correlation. This suggests that the newly proposed strategy is a reliable and simple method for the rapid discrimination of subtle variations, within the same plant species or strains, due to different seasonal collection times.