Nutr Res Pract.  2012 Dec;6(6):491-498.

Antioxidant activities of licorice-derived prenylflavonoids

Affiliations
  • 1School of Applied Biosciences and Food Science and Biotechnology, BK21 research Team for Developing Functional Health Food Materials, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu 702-701, Korea. vision@knu.ac.kr
  • 2R&D Team, Gyeongbuk Natural Color Institute, Yeongcheon, Gyeongbuk 770-906, Korea.
  • 3Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Gangwon 200-702, Korea.

Abstract

Glycyrrhiza uralensis (or licorice) is a widely used Oriental herbal medicine from which the phenylflavonoids dehydroglyasperin C (DGC), dehydroglyasperin D (DGD), and isoangustone A (IsoA) are derived. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant properties of DGC, DGD, and IsoA. The three compounds showed strong ferric reducing activities and effectively scavenged DPPH, ABTS+, and singlet oxygen radicals. Among the three compounds tested, DGC showed the highest free radical scavenging capacity in human hepatoma HepG2 cells as assessed by oxidant-sensitive fluorescent dyes dichlorofluorescein diacetate and dihydroethidium bromide. In addition, all three compounds effectively suppressed lipid peroxidation in rat tissues as well as H2O2-induced ROS production in hepatoma cells. This study demonstrates that among the three phenylflavonoids isolated from licorice, DGC possesses the most potent antioxidant activity, suggesting it has protective effects against chronic diseases caused by reactive oxygen species as well as potential as an antioxidant food additive.

Keyword

Antioxidant activity; licorice; dehydroglyasperin C; dehydroglyasperin D; isoangustone A

MeSH Terms

Animals
Benzopyrans
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular
Chronic Disease
Ethidium
Flavonoids
Fluorescent Dyes
Food Additives
Glycyrrhiza
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
Hep G2 Cells
Herbal Medicine
Humans
Isoflavones
Lipid Peroxidation
Rats
Reactive Oxygen Species
Singlet Oxygen
Benzopyrans
Ethidium
Flavonoids
Fluorescent Dyes
Food Additives
Isoflavones
Reactive Oxygen Species
Singlet Oxygen

Figure

  • Fig. 1 Molecular structures of dehydroglyasperin C (A), dehydroglyasperin D (B), and Isoangustone A (C).

  • Fig. 2 Singlet oxygen quenching capacities of increasing concentrations of DGC, DGD, IsoA, and ascorbic acid. Results are expressed as the means ± SD of three independent experiments. Means without a common letter differ, P < 0.05.

  • Fig. 3 Inhibition of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by three phenylflavonoids isolated from licorice in HepG2 cells. ROS of a human hepatoma cell line were stained with DCFDA (A) and DHE (B). Results are expressed as the means ± SD of three independent experiments. Means without a common letter differ, P < 0.05.

  • Fig. 4 Inhibition of lipid peroxidation by DGC, DGD, and IsoA in liver (A), brain (B), and kidney (C) tissue extracts. Results are expressed as the means ± SD of three independent experiments. Means without a common letter differ, P < 0.05.


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