Pharmacokinetic Study of Safrole and Methyl Eugenol after Oral Administration of the Essential Oil Extracts of Asarum in Rats by GC-MS

Abstract

Asarum is a traditional medicine and has been widely used as remedies for inflammatory diseases, toothache, headache, local anesthesia, and aphthous stomatitis in China, Japan, and Korea. Our previous research found that safrole and methyl eugenol were vital compounds that contribute to distinguish the different species and raw Asarum and its processed products apart. The pharmacokinetics of safrole and methyl eugenol after oral administration of Asarum extract has not been reported yet. In this study, a rapid and simple gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) method that has a complete run time of only 4.5 min was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination and pharmacokinetic study of safrole and methyl eugenol in rat plasma after administration of Asarum extracts. The chromatographic separation was realized on a DB-17 column ( 30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μ m ). And detection was carried out under selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Plasma samples were pretreated by n -hexane. The pharmacokinetic parameters provided by this study will be beneficial for further developments and clinical applications of Asarum.

Effect of Different Light Qualities on Essential Oil and Asarinin in Asarum heterotropoides Fr. Schmidt var. mandshuricum (Maxim.) Kitag

“…Essential oils composition has also been reported to be influenced with the light quality in different aromatic plant species, e.g., rosemary [33], Japanese mint [34], thyme, marjoram and oregano [9]. In Asarum essential oils, methyleugenol and eucarvone are the active ingredients [35,36], whereas safrole and myristicin are the toxic ingredients [37,38]. The results, that elemicin, 3,5-dimethoxytoluene and methyleugenol were accumulated in higher quantities in response to light quality V, can be a useful observation.…”

Effect of molecular distillation on the anti-inflammatory activity and neurotoxicity of Asarum essential oil

“…Network pharmacological analysis of AEO components showed that methyl eugenol and safrole could act on the inflammatory genes COX-1 and LAT4H ( Liu and Wang, 2022 ). The aforementioned data suggested that methyl eugenol and safrole are the active components of AEO and are may responsible for their anti-inflammatory effects ( Fan et al, 2021 ).…”