Archives of Pharmacal Research

The Pharmaceutical Society of Korea (대한약학회)
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Anticonvulsant Compounds from the Wood of Caesalpinia sappan L.

  • Baek, Nam-In (Department of Life Sciences, Kyunghee University) ;
  • Jeon, Seong-Gyu (Department of Genetic Engineering, Division of Life Sciences, Hallym University) ;
  • Ahn, Eun-Mi (Department of Life Sciences, Kyunghee University) ;
  • Hahn, Jae-Taek (Department of Life Sciences, Kyunghee University) ;
  • Bahn, Jae-Hoon (Department of Genetic Engineering, Division of Life Sciences, Hallym University) ;
  • Jang, Joong-Sik (Department of Genetic Engineering, Division of Life Sciences, Hallym University) ;
  • Cho, Sung-Woo (Department of Biochemistry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine) ;
  • Park, Jin-Kyu (Korea Ginseng & Tobacco Research Institute) ;
  • Choi, Soo-Young (Department of Genetic Engineering, Division of Life Sciences, Hallym University)
  • Published : 2000.08.01
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Abstract

80% Aqueous MeOH extracts from the wood of Caesalpinia sappan, which showed remarkable anticonvulsant activity, were fractionated using EtOAc, n-BuOH, and $H_2$O. Among them, the EtOAc fraction significantly inhibited the activities of two GABA degradative enzymes, succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) and succinic semialdehyde reductase (SSAR). Repeated column chromatographies for the fraction guided by activity test led to the isolation of the two active principal components. Their chemical structures were determined to be sappanchalcone and brazilin based on spectral data. The pure compounds, sappanchalcone (1) and brazilin (2), inactivated the SSAR activities in a dose dependent manner, whereas SSADH was inhibited partially by sappanchalcone and not by brazilin.

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