Abstract
Of 266 Chinese crude drugs, the hot water extract from the root of Scutellaria baicalensis showed potent mouse liver sialidase inhibitory activity; in addition, wogonin, wogonin
glucuronide, baicalein, and baicalin were identified as the inhibitors. These flavonoids
showed almost the same inhibitory activity when 50-125 µg/ml doses of the samples
were used for the assay, while wogonin and baicalein showed a more potent activity
than wogonin glucuronide and baicalin at the lower concentration (10 µg/ml). However,
these flavonoids, except wogonin, showed negligible inhibitory activity against Arthrobacter ureafaciens sialidase. These results indicated that S. baicalensis extract contains the sialidase inhibitors which are specific to mouse liver sialidase.
