Inhibition of airway inflammation by the roots of Angelica decursiva and its constituent, columbianadin.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The roots of Angelica decursiva Fr. Et Sav (Umbelliferae) have been frequently used in traditional medicine as anti-inflammatory, antitussive, analgesic agents and expectorant, especially for treating cough, asthma, bronchitis and upper respiratory tract infections. To establish the scientific rationale for the clinical use of Angelica decursiva and to identify new agents for treating inflammatory lung disorders, pharmacological evaluation of the roots of Angelica decursiva and the isolated constituents was performed. METHODS: In vitro study was carried out using two lung cells, lung epithelial cells (A549) and alveolar macrophages (MH-S). The inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and nitric oxide (NO) for each cell line were examined. For in vivo study, a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury was used and the effects on lung inflammation were established by measuring the cell numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and by histological observation. RESULTS: Water and 70% ethanol extracts of the roots of Angelica decursiva showed considerable inhibitory activity against LPS-induced lung inflammation in mice following oral administration at a dose of 400 mg/kg. Five coumarin derivatives including columbianadin, umbelliferone, umbelliferone 6-carboxylic acid, nodakenin and nodakenetin were isolated. Among the isolated compounds, columbianadin was found to possess strong inhibitory activity against the inflammatory response of IL-1ß-treated A549 cells and LPS-treated MH-S cells. Columbianadin was found to inhibit NO production by down-regulation of inducible NO synthase. Moreover, columbianadin was also proved to possess significant inhibitory activity against LPS-induced lung inflammation following oral administration at a dose of 20-60 mg/kg. CONCLUSIONS: The roots of Angelica decursiva were proved to be effective in the treatment of lung inflammation. Columbianadin can be a potential new agent for treating inflammatory lung disorders.

Application of stepwise gradients in counter-current chromatography: a rapid and economical strategy for the one-step separation of eight coumarins from Seseli resinosum.

The targeted purification of compounds with a broad polarity range from traditional medicinal plants is a big challenge for counter-current chromatography (CCC). Gradient elution was introduced in CCC to address this problem. However, once a suitable solvent system is selected, the separation process requires optimization of operational parameters. The present study was conducted to optimize various operational parameters to integrate the flow rate and solvent gradients for the rapid isolation of eight coumarins from Seseli resinosum in a single run. An increase in the system temperature from 15°C to 35°C increased the stationary phase retention and solubility of the sample, whereas the operation time and viscosity of the system were decreased. The high purity of each compound was ensured by collecting the fractions from the main peaks while all the shoulder peaks were mixed and separated under the same conditions with semi-preparative CCC. GC-FID was used to analyze the components of each phase, which was prepared without presaturation to save the time and solvent consumption. Finally, eight coumarins were purified, including (1) d-laserpitin, (2) (3'S,4'S)-3'-angeloyloxy-4'-hydroxy-3',4'-dihydroseselin, (3) (+)-samidin, (4) (3'S,4'S)-3'-acetoxy-4'-angeloyloxy-3',4'-dihydroseselin, (5) deltoin (6), calipteryxin, (7) (3'S,4'S)-3',4'-disenecioyloxy-3',4'-dihydroseselin, and (8) (-)-anomalin. The present technique has successfully accomplished the goal of one-step separation of these compounds with high purity and recovery in an economic and time efficient manner.