Cassiae semen: A review of its phytochemistry and pharmacology

Dong, Xiaoxv; Fu, Jing; Yin, Xingbin; Yang, Chunjing; Zhang, Xin; Wang, Wenping; Du, Xueying; Wang, Qingling; Ni, Jian

A number of compounds, including anthraquinones, naphthopyrones, volatile oils and sterols, have been isolated from Cassiae semen. Anthraquinones and naphthopyrones, which exhibit multiple pharmacological activities, are considered the primary active ingredients of Cassiae semen. All compounds isolated from Cassiae semen are listed in Table I, Anthraquinones. Cassiae semen contains structurally diverse and biologically active anthraquinones. Thus far, ~53 anthraquinones have been isolated and identified. The predominant anthraquinones are emodin-type anthraquinones, which include emodin, chrysophanol, physcion, aloe-emodin, rhein, obtusin, chryso-obtusin, aurantio-obtusin, obtusifolin, questin, 1-desmethylaurantio-obtusin, 1-desmethylobtusin, 1-desmethylchryso-obtusin, chrysophanol-10,10'-bianthrone, 1, 2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, 2-hydroxyemodin-1-methylether, alaternin, 1,3-dihydroxy-6-methoxy-7-methyl anthraquinone, 1-hydroxy-3,7-diformyl anthraquinone, chrysarobin, 8-O-methylchrysophanol, 1-O-methylemodin, 1,2-dimethoxy-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-9 ,10-anthraquinone and l,2,7-trimethoxyl-6,8-dihydroxy-3-methylanthraquinone (compounds 1-24, respectively; Fig. 1 ); these have all been isolated from Cassiae semen (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) . There are also many combined anthraquinones (compounds 25-46; Fig. 1 ), which have been isolated from the seeds of C. obtusifolia or C. tora (3, 7, 30, 36, (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) (45) (46) .