Comparison of chemical components and antioxidant capacity of different Echinacea species

Abstract

Alcoholic extracts of the roots and leaves of three Echinacea species (E. purpurea, E. angustifolia and E. pallida) were analysed for the presence of characteristic chemicals by HPLC directly coupled to ultraviolet absorbance and electrospray mass spectrometric detectors. The method permitted rapid characterization and tentative identification of a large number of caffeoyl conjugates and alkamides in all the samples investigated. The roots of the three species differed markedly in their contents of characteristic compounds. Cichoric acid and verbascoside predominated in extracts of E. purpurea root whereas cynarine and dodeca-2E,4E,8Z,10Z/E-tetraenoic acid isobutylamide were the major chemicals characteristic of E. angustifolia root extracts. Echinacoside and 6-O-caffeoylechinacoside predominated in extracts of E. pallida roots. Characteristic alkamides were also examined by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and these compounds provided characteristic fragmentation patterns. Extracts of the roots and leaves of all three species were found to have antioxidant properties in a free radical scavenging assay and in a lipid peroxidation assay.

Evaluation of Hepatocyteprotective and Anti-hepatitis B Virus Properties of Cichoric Acid from <i>Cichorium intybus</i> Leaves in Cell Culture

“…22,23) Cichoric acid, as a natural caffeic acid derivative, stimulates cell-mediated immunity, exhibits anti-vesicular stomatitis virus and antioxidant activities, and inhibits hyaluronidase, an enzyme involved in infection and inflammation, has a stimulant effect on phagocytes and an inhibitive effect on the HIV infection. 13,[24][25][26][27][28] Although cichoric acid exhibits a variety of bioactivities, its pharmacological properties (especially antiviral potential) are not yet completely clear. In the present study, the hepatocyteprotective, anti-DHBV and anti-HBV effects of cichoric acid were evaluated by the D-GalN-induced HL-7702 cells damage model, the DHBV-infected primary duck fetal hepatocytes and the HBV-transfected HepG2.2.15 cells, respectively.…”

“…32) In this study, cichoric acid attenuated significantly D-GalN-induced hepatocyte injury after the cells were pretreated with test compound. In addition, cichoric acid has been shown to possess phagocytosis stimulatory, anti-hyaluronidase and antioxidant activities, 10,26,27) thereby implying that its anti-hyaluronidase, phagocytosis stimulatory and antioxidative properties may have contributed to the amelioration of chemical-induced hepatocyte damage.…”

Patterns of variation in lipophilic and hydrophilic constituents in flower developmental stages of Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench cultivated in Slovakia

“…It stimulates cell-mediated immunity (Bauer 1999), exhibits antiviral (Cheminat et al 1988) and antioxidant activity (Sloley et al 2001), inhibits hyaluronidase (Maffei Facino 1995), an enzyme involved in infection and inflammation, has a stimulant effect on phagocytes and an inhibitive effect on the HIV infection (Reinke et al 2004). Echinacoside, another caffeic acid derivative, was shown to exhibit potent antioxidant/free-radical scavening (Maffei Facino 1995, Hu andKitts 2000) and anti-inflammatory activity (Speroni et al 2002), but does not appear to stimulate immune cells.…”

Effects of growing methods and plant age on the yield, and on the content of flavonoids and phenolic acids in Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench.

“…Factors that may influence the chemical composition of Echinacea preparations include the species of Echinacea used (E. purpurea, E. pallida or E. angustifolia), the part of the plant used (leaves, flowers, stems or roots), growing, drying and storage conditions and method of extraction (Schulthess et al 1991, Percival 2000, Perry et al 2001. Freshly harvested Echinacea is likely to be more effective than preparations that have been stored for a long period of time since the prolonged storage may result in a loss or damage of beneficial active constituents (Perry et al 2001 (Pietta et al 1998, Sloley et al 2001) and cichoric acid is commonly used as a quality indicator for this species (Bergeron et al 2000, Gray et al 2003.…”