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

Antioxidant activity. The water extract of C. tora seeds accelerated the oxidation of deoxyribose induced by Fe 3+ -EDTA/H 2 O 2 and exhibited 94% inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation at a concentration of 0.2 mg/ml. The underlying mechanisms of this may be mediated by reducing metal ions, scavenging hydroxyl radical and chelating ferrousion (92, 93) . Xv and Hu (94) demonstrated that the water extract of Cassiae semen exhibited a potent ability to scavenge free oxygen radicals [IC 50 values were 2 mg/ml and 2 µg/ml for hydroxyl radicals (OH -) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), respectively]. WSP from Cassiae semen (0.022 mg/ml) effectively inhibited superoxide radicals (O 2-) induced by pyrogallol autoxidation (95) . The inhibitory effects of WSP on serum levels of MDA were used to evaluate its antioxidation capabilities. The results demonstrated that WSP decreased MDA serum levels with an IC 50 value of 15.80% (96) . In another study, Liu et al (97) optimized the extraction conditions for WSP of Cassiae semen (temperature 80˚C, extraction time 3.5 h, solid-liquid ratio 1:30) and observed that WSP (94.03 µg/ml) had the ability to scavenge hydroxyl and superoxide radicals with scavenging rates of 43.32 and 64.97%, respectively.