Velvet antler methanol extracts (MEs) protects against oxidative stress in Caenorhabditis elegans by SKN-1.

Velvet antler is one of the most important animal medicines or functional foods widely used in East Asia for many centuries, which has several biological activities including anti-ageing and health promotion. To date, the mechanism underlying these effects of velvet antler is widely studied by its protein or polypeptide components. Few studies have been reported for the function of the other components in velvet antler. Herein, C. elegans is used as the model animal to dissect how none protein components of velvet antler affect in vivo oxidative stress. Methanol extracts (MEs) from velvet antler which has few protein components extends the maximum lifespan of C. elegans compared to the control under oxidative stress, while water extracts (WEs) which is protein-rich component has no apparent function. The activity of MEs is mediated by clk-1 signaling pathway, but not via daf-2, eat-2 or glp-1 pathway. Further investigations show MEs decrease endogenous ROS by promoting SKN-1 nuclei translocation, subsequently up-regulating the expression of its target genes gst-4, gst-7 and gst-10 in C. elegans. In all, MEs, the none protein components of velvet antler, protects against oxidative stress in C. elegans, which indicates it might be a product with potential of being a curative medicine.

Preparative Separation and Purification of Four Glycosides from Gentianae radix by High-Speed Counter-Current Chromatography and Comparison of Their Anti-NO Production Effects.

Secoiridoid and iridoid glycosides are the main active components of Gentianaeradix. In this work, one iridoid and three secoiridoid glycosides from Gentianaeradix have been purified by high-speed counter-current chromatography in two runs using different solvent systems. Ethyl acetate-n-butanol-water (2:1:3, v/v/v) was the optimum solvent system to purify ca. 4.36 mg of loganic acid, 3.05 mg of swertiamarin, and 35.66 mg of gentiopicroside with 98.1%, 97.2% and 98.6% purities, respectively, while 31.15 mg of trifloroside with 98.9% purity was separated using hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (1:3:1:3, v/v/v/v). The structures of the glycosides were identified by mass spectrometry and NMR. After separation, the anti-nitric oxide production effects of the compounds on lipopolysaccharide-induced BV-2 murine microglial cells were also evaluated. All of the compounds inhibited the production of nitric oxide in lipopolysaccharide-induced BV-2 cells with high cell viabilities in a concentration-dependent manner, which demonstrated that were able to be used as a nitric oxide inhibitor.