Wound healing effects of cycloartane-type triterpenes isolated from Astragalus species
Articles > Article · 2009
Authors: C Sevimli-Gür, İ Onbaşılar, P Atilla, N Çakar, İ Deliloğlu-Gürhan, E Bedir
Planta Medica, International, WoS, 2009, vol 75
Summary
In the district of Anatolia, located in South Eastern Turkey, an aqueous extract of the roots of Astragalus is traditionally used against leukemia and for its wound-healing properties. Known biologically active constituents of Astragalus roots represent two major classes of chemical compounds, polysaccharides and saponins [1]. Based on the claims that Astragalus has several important therapeutic properties, including wound healing and immunomodulation [2,3], our team has decided to focus on Astragalus cycloartanes as a lead to discover new wound healing agents. Thus we made an attempt to characterize wound healing effects of four major cycloartanes isolated from Astragalus species [Cycloastragenol ( 1 ), astragaloside IV (2 ), cyclocephaloside I ( 3 ) and cyclocanthoside E (4 )]. Effects of cell viability and proliferation of the isolated compounds were evaluated by the MTT assay on primary human skin epithelium cells. The wound healing activity was studied by using the in vitro wound healing, proliferation and migration method. Compared to the other compounds and positive control EGF (0.01µg/ml), the compound 1 showed stronger wound healing activity at 1µM concentration. In order to see in vivo efficiency of the compounds, an animal study with Sprague-Dawley male rats at the age of 12 weeks was carried out, and then the main histological outcomes were investigated to observe reepithelization, neovascularization, presence of inflammatory cells, granulation tissue amount and maturation. Among the compounds, 5% cycloastragenol preparation showed remarkable in vivo wound healing activity. References: [1] Tang, W., Eisenbrand, G. (1992) Chinese Drugs of Plant Origin, Springer-Verlag, Berlin. [2] Calis, I. et al. (1997) Planta Med. 63:183–186. [3] Bedir, E. et al. (2000) Biol. Pharm. Bull. 23:834–837.