Antihepatotoxic Principles of Artemisia capillaris Buds¹

Abstract

Since an extract of the crude drug “inchinko”, the buds of Artemisia capillaris, showed significant antihepatotoxic activity by means of carbon tetrachloride-induced liver lesion in vivo and in vitro, the extract was fractionated by monitoring the activity to yield a number of flavonoids and a coumarin (6,7-dimethylesculetin). Antihepatotoxic effects of these constituents were determined by in vitro assay methods using carbon tetrachloride- and galactosamine-induced cytotoxicity in primary cultured rat hepatocytes. Some analogues of dimethylesculetin were also assayed for liver-protective activity. Both the antihepatotoxic activity and the dimethylesculetin content in this plant were found to vary markedly with the date of harvesting, which was assumed to be a reason for remarkable variations of the antihepatotoxic activity in commercially available preparations of this crude drug.