In recent years, the cultivation of medicinal plants in Japan has become an active. However, the natural medicinal plants are known to change the content rate of components depending on the cultivation area and cultivation conditions. That is, there is a need to confirm the content of active ingredients in medicinal parts of crude drug. But, as in Japanese Angelica Root, it's not always true that the principal ingredient is an active ingredient.
Therefore, for the purpose of searching active ingredients of Japanese Angelica Root, we tried the comprehensive analysis of Japanese Angelica Root extract using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the identification of the compound of the main peak. In addition, using in vivo assay method for monitoring the blood flow decrease in tail vein microcirculation of mice subjected to sensitization with hen-egg white lysozyme (HEL), we investigated the improvement of peripheral circulatory disturbance of Japanese Angelica Root and the ingredient.
Peripheral blood flow in the mouse tail was monitored using a laser doppler blood flow meter as previously described. The normal blood flow was measured for 10 min at 1 day before the experiment. The blood flow of each mouse was measured for 10 min without anesthesia. The results were expressed as the mean ± S.E. of the percent of the normal blood flow of each mouse.
We identified the compounds in Japanese Angelica Root of the main peaks on HPLC pattern as ligustilide, xanthotoxin and adenosine, respectively. In addition, adenosine is known as a therapeutic agent for ischemic disease, and it significantly improved the peripheral circulatory disturbance, using in vivo assay method for monitoring the blood flow in this study. We suggesting that adenosine may be involved in the improvement of blood flow in Japanese Angelica Root.