Helicteres angustifolia L., family of Sterculiaceae, is a folk medicine commonly adulterated or substituted as Shan-Don-Gen (Sophora Subprosprata Radix) in Taiwan market. Due to analgesic, antipyretic, cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory effects, it has been used to treat swelling, sorethroat and acute pharyngitis. The present study showed that the LD50 of the methanol extract of the root of this plant on mice was 2.54 g/kg (p. o.). The crude methanol extract and its fractions partitioned by nhexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and water exhibited marked cytotoxic effect against A-549, HT-29, KB-16, and P-388 cell lines, respectively. Among them, the ED50 of the EtOAc layer was 0.581 μg/ml against HT-29 cell line. The crude methanol extract and fractions also showed significant inhibitory effects against β-glucuronidase release on neutrophil degranulation induced by fMLP. Fractions of ethyl acetate and n-butanol layer showed the best anti-inflammatory effect with IC50 of 16.7 and 56.3 μg/ml, respectively. They also showed similar inhibitory effects against lysozyme release in this experiment. In the mast cell degranulation induced by compound 48/80 experiments, chloroform layer at 10 μg/ml, EtOAc and water layer at 30 μg/ml, exhibited remarkable antiallergic effect against histamine release, but they did not show the effects on the release of β-glucuronidase.
Helicteres angustifolia L., family of Sterculiaceae, is a folk medicine commonly adulterated or substituted as Shan-Don-Gen (Sophora Subprosprata Radix) in Taiwan market. Due to analgesic, antipyretic, cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory effects, it has been used to treat swelling, sorethroat and acute pharyngitis. The present study showed that the LD50 of the methanol extract of the root of this plant on mice was 2.54 g/kg (p. o.). The crude methanol extract and its fractions partitioned by nhexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and water exhibited marked cytotoxic effect against A-549, HT-29, KB-16, and P-388 cell lines, respectively. Among them, the ED50 of the EtOAc layer was 0.581 μg/ml against HT-29 cell line. The crude methanol extract and fractions also showed significant inhibitory effects against β-glucuronidase release on neutrophil degranulation induced by fMLP. Fractions of ethyl acetate and n-butanol layer showed the best anti-inflammatory effect with IC50 of 16.7 and 56.3 μg/ml, respectively. They also showed similar inhibitory effects against lysozyme release in this experiment. In the mast cell degranulation induced by compound 48/80 experiments, chloroform layer at 10 μg/ml, EtOAc and water layer at 30 μg/ml, exhibited remarkable antiallergic effect against histamine release, but they did not show the effects on the release of β-glucuronidase.