linoleic-acid and thiocyanate

The antioxidative activities of 12 medicinal plants and the compounds isolated from them were investigated using the thiocyanate method to evaluate inhibitory effects on lipid peroxidation in the linoleic acid system. The peroxide levels gradually increased during incubation in the presence of linoleic acid over 3 days, and most of the plants inhibited lipid peroxidation. In particular, of the plants tested, Cudrania tricuspidata, Zanthoxylum piperitum, Houttuynia cordata and Ulmus parvifolia reduced lipid peroxidation more effectively as lipid peroxidation progressed, resulting in inhibition of about 80% relative to the control value by the 3rd day of incubation. In addition, the polyphenols isolated from the plants also showed marked and dose-dependent inhibitory effects on lipid peroxidation. The compounds with the strongest activities were 3,4-dihydroxylbenzoic acid, quercetin, the quercetin glycosides quercetin-3-O-beta-D-galactoside, quercetin-3-O-alpha-L-rhamnoside, quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucoside and quercetin-3-O-rutinose, catechin, gallic acid, methyl gallate and rosamultin isolated from Zanthoxylum piperitum, Houttuynia cordata, Rosa rugosa and Cedrela sinensis. Moreover, quercetin glycosides showed stronger activity than quercetin, suggesting that glycosylation increases the antioxidative activity of quercetin. Our results indicate that the medicinal plants and their polyphenols show promise as therapeutic agents for various disorders involving free radical reactions.

Topics: Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Free Radical Scavengers; Linoleic Acid; Lipid Peroxidation; Methanol; Oxidative Stress; Plants; Thiocyanates

In order to develop a new type of antioxidative compound which has both the phenolic and beta-diketone moiety in the same molecule, we converted three known curcuminoids, curcumin (diferuloylmethane, U1), (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamoyl)methane (U2), and bis-(4-hydroxycinnamoyl)methane (U3), which are the natural antioxidants of Curcuma longa L. (tumeric), to tetrahydrocurcuminoids (THU1, THU2, and THU3, respectively) by hydrogenation, and evaluated their antioxidative activity by using linoleic acid as the substrate in an ethanol/water system. Further, we used the rabbit erythrocyte membrane ghost and rat liver microsome as in vitro systems and determined the antioxidative activity of these curcuminoids. When we evaluated their antioxidative activity by these assays, it was found that THU1 had the strongest antioxidative activity among all curcuminoids in each assay system. THU1 has been reported to be one of the main metabolites of U1 in vivo [Holder et al., Xenobiotica, 8, 761-768 (1978)]. These results suggest that THU1 must play an important role in the antioxidative mechanism of U1 in vivo by converting U1 into THU1.

Topics: Animals; Antioxidants; Curcumin; Erythrocyte Membrane; Hydrogenation; Linoleic Acid; Linoleic Acids; Methane; Microsomes, Liver; Oxidation-Reduction; Rabbits; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Structure-Activity Relationship; Thiobarbiturates; Thiocyanates