Poster: Phytoremediation

Abs # 975: Chemoprevention Bioactivity of Elephantopus mollis

Presenter:	Wang, David Sheng-Yang , dsywang@gate.sinica.edu.tw
Authors	Wang, David Sheng-Yang  (A)   Chang, Hsing-Ning  (A)   Ho, Yu-Chi  (A)   Lo, Chiu-Ping  (A)   Chiang, Yi-Ming  (A)   Lu, Chih-ying  (A)   Shyur,  Lie-Fen  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Institute of BioAgricultural Science, Academia Sinica

Elephantopus mollis, also known as ¡§Didancao¡¨, is a receipt herb in Chinese medicine. It has been used as a diuretic, anti-febrile, anti-viral or antibacterial agent; as well as in the treatment of hepatitis, bronchitis the cough associated with pneumonia, and arthralgia. Little scientific evidences are available for these claimed pharmacological effects. This led us to evaluate the potential chemo-preventive effects of plant extracts from Elephantopus mollis. Several assay systems such as anti-oxidation, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibition, and COX-2 regulation were employed in this study. An aqueous extract from Elephantopus mollis was found to possess significant free radical and superoxide radical scavenging activity, and effectively protected mouse brain lipid against oxidative stress. Moreover, at a dosage of 10mg/mL, ethyl acetate fraction of Elephantopus mollis extracts almost completely inhibited nitric oxide production and the mRNA expression of iNOS in LPS stimulated-macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Bioactivity-guided chromatographic fractionation and metabolite profiling coupled with spectroscopic analyses revealed that phenolic compounds, i.e., caffeic acid, 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 1,4- dicaffeoylquinic acid, and 3,4-dihydroxy-cinnamic acid methyl ester, are the main constituents in the active ethyl acetate fraction, indicating that these compounds play major roles in the chemo-preventive activity of Elephantopus mollis