General

Scientific Names: Paeonia lactiflora Pall.

Common Names: Shao Yao, Bai Shao, Chi Shao.

BOTANICAL:

来 源： 毛莨科植物芍药 Paeonia lactiflora Pall. 的干燥根。

植物特征： 多年生草本，高50～80cm。叶互生，有长柄；茎下部叶为2回三出羽状复叶，枝端为单叶；小叶狭卵形、披针形或椭圆形，边缘具软骨质小齿。花顶生并腋生；萼片4，微紫红色；花瓣6～9，白色、粉红色或紫红色；雄蕊多数；心皮4～5，无毛或密被白毛，骨突果卵形，先端外弯成钩状。花期6月，果期8～9月。

生药材鉴定： 呈圆柱形，平直或稍弯曲，两端平截 , 长 5 ～ 18 厘米，直径 1 ～ 2.5 厘米。表面类白色或淡红棕色，光洁或有纵皱纹及细根痕，偶有残存的棕褐色外皮。质坚实，不易折断，断面较平坦，类白色或微带棕红色，形成层环明显，射线放射状。气微，味微苦酸。

Pharmacology

化学成分: 根含芍药甙（paeoniflorin）、氧化芍药甙（oxypaeoniflorin）、芍药内酯甙（albiflorin）、苯甲酰芍药甙（benzoylpaeoniflorin）、芍药甙元酮（paeoniflorigenone）、丹皮酚原甙（paeonolide）、丹皮酚（paeonol）；尚含苯甲酸、胡萝卜甙及多种鞣质类等。

Efficacy

Resveratrol has been shown to possess antioxidant and anticancer activities, but little is known on the effect of resveratrol derivatives. Recently we have isolated resveratrol and its dimers and trimers from peony (Paeonia lactiflora) seeds, and reported their strong antioxidant and cytotoxic activity. In the present study, we have evaluated cellular effects of resveratrol derivatives; viniferin, gnetin H, and suffruticosol B on the proliferation and apoptosis in HL-60 cells in vitro. All resveratrol and its derivatives reduced viability of HL-60 cells in a dose-dependent manner with their IC(50) values of 20-90 microM. Ascending orders of IC(50) values were suffruticosol B, gnetin H, viniferin and resveratrol respectively. HL-60 cells treated with the four stilbenes exhibited the distinct morphological changes characteristics of cell apoptosis such as chromatin condensation, apoptotic bodies, and DNA fragmentations. A time-dependent histogram of the cellular DNA analyzed by flow cytometry revealed a rapid increase in subdiploid cells and a concomitant decrease in diploid cells exposed to 100 microM resveratrol for 0-24 h. Cells treated with 25 microM of resveratrol, viniferin, gnetin H, and suffruticosol B for 24 h resulted in increment of sub-G1 population by 51, 5, 11 and 59%, respectively. Treatment of cells with 0-20 microM resveratrol for 5 h produced a concentration-dependent decrease in cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1B1 mRNA levels. Suffruticosol B also suppressed CYP1B1 gene expression. These results demonstrated that resveratrol oligomers also strongly suppressed HL-60 cell proliferation, and induced DNA damage. In addition, CYP1B1 gene supression may suggest an involvement in the resveratrol-induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells. (source)

Paeoniae Radix (PR) is the root of traditional Chinese Herb named Paeonia lactiflora Pallas, which is commonly used to treat liver diseases in China for centuries. Several earlier studies have indicated that PR has anticancer growth activities, however the mechanism underlying these activities was unclear and remained to be elucidated. In this study, we evaluated the molecular mechanism of the effect of PR on human hepatoma cell lines, HepG2 and Hep3B. Our results showed that the water-extract of Paeoniae Radix (PRE) had inhibitory effect on the growth of both HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines. The induction of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation appearance, and accumulation of sub-G1 phase of cell cycle profile in PRE treated hepatoma cells evidenced that the cytotoxicity of PRE to the hepatoma cells is through activation of the cell death program, apoptosis. The activation of apoptosis by PRE is independent of the p53 pathway as Hep3B cell is p53-deficient. In addition, the differential gene expression of PRE treated HepG2 was examined by cDNA microarray technology and RT-PCR analysis. We found that the gene expression of BNIP3 was up-regulated while ZK1, RAD23B, and HSPD1 were down-regulated during early apoptosis of the hepatoma cell mediated by PRE. The elucidation of the drug targets of PR on inhibition of tumor cells growth should enable further development of PR for liver cancer therapy. (source)

Cytotoxic and antimutagenic effects of a novel cis-epsilon-viniferin and five known stilbenes, transresveratrol, trans-epsilon-viniferin, gnetin H, suffruticosols A and B, isolated from the seeds of Paeonia lactiflora Pall. (Paeoniaceae) were determined against five different cancer cell lines, and mutagenicity of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in Salmonella typhimurium TA100, respectively. Six stilbenes showed cytotoxic activity in a dose-dependent manner, and especially did potent cytotoxic activity against C6 (mouse glioma) cancer cell with IC50 values ranging from 8.2 to 20.5 microg/ml. trans-Resveratrol showed significant cytotoxic activity against HepG2 (liver hepatoma) and HT-29 (colon) human cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 11.8 and 25.2 g/ml, respectively. In contrast, trans-epsilon-viniferin and cis--viniferin, and gnetin H exhibited marked cytotoxic activity against Hela (cervicse) and MCF-7 (breast) human cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 20.4, 21.5, and 12.9 microg/ml, respectively. However, suffruticosol A and B had less cytotoxic effect against all cancer cells except C6. Meanwhile, six stilbenes exerted antimutagenic activity in a dose-dependent fashion. Of them, trans-resveratrol exhibited the strongest antimutagenic effect against MNNG with IC50 value of 27.0 microg/plate, while other five resveratrol oligomers also did moderate antimutagenic activity with IC50 values ranging from 31.7 to 35.2 microg/plate. (source)

IN VITRO:

1. Lee SJ, et al., 1,2,3,4,6-Penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose blocks endothelial cell growth and tube formation through inhibition of VEGF binding to VEGF receptor. Cancer Lett. 2004 May 10; 208(1):89-94.
2. Kang JH, et al., Resveratrol derivatives potently induce apoptosis in human promyelocytic leukemia cells. Exp Mol Med. 2003 Dec 31; 35(6):467-74.
3. Lee SJ, et al., Inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 activity by 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose in murine macrophage cells. Arch Pharm Res. 2003 Oct; 26(10):832-9.
4. Lee SM, et al., Paeoniae Radix, a Chinese herbal extract, inhibit hepatoma cells growth by inducing apoptosis in a p53 independent pathway. Life Sci. 2002 Sep 27; 71(19):2267-77.
5. Kim HJ, et al., Cytotoxic and antimutagenic stilbenes from seeds of Paeonia lactiflora. Arch Pharm Res. 2002 Jun; 25(3):293-9.
6. Zee-Cheng RK. Shi-quan-da-bu-tang (ten significant tonic decoction), SQT. A potent Chinese biological response modifier in cancer immunotherapy, potentiation and detoxification of anticancer drugs. Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol. 1992 Nov; 14(9):725-36. Review.
7. Sakamoto S, et al., Pharmacotherapeutic effects of kuei-chih-fu-ling-wan (keishi-bukuryo-gan) on human uterine myomas. Am J Chin Med. 1992; 20(3-4):313-7.
   
   
   

Safety

宜忌: 　 不宜与藜芦同用。