Abstract
BackgroundThe anti-inflammatory activity of Andrographis paniculata (Acanthaceae), a traditional medicine widely used in Asia, is commonly attributed to andrographolide, its main secondary metabolite. Commercial A. paniculata extracts are standardised to andrographolide content. We undertook the present study to investigate 1) how selective enrichment of andrographolide in commercial A. paniculata extracts affects the variability of non-standardised phytochemical components and 2) if variability in the non-standardised components of the extract affects the pharmacological activity of andrographolide itself.MethodsWe characterized 12 commercial, standardised (≥30% andrographolide) batches of A. paniculata extracts from India by HPLC profiling. We determined the antioxidant capacity of the extracts using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging, oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC) and a Folin-Ciocalteu (FC) antioxidant assays. Their anti-inflammatory activity was assessed by assaying their inhibitory effect on the release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in the human monocytic cell line THP-1.ResultsThe andrographolide content in the samples was close to the claimed value (32.2 ± 2.1%, range 27.5 to 35.9%). Twenty-one non-standardised constituents exhibited more than 2-fold variation in HPLC peak intensities in the tested batches. The chlorogenic acid content of the batches varied more than 30-fold. The DPPH free radical scavenging activity varied ~3-fold, the ORAC and FC antioxidant capacity varied ~1.5 fold among batches. In contrast, the TNF-α inhibitory activity of the extracts exhibited little variation and comparison with pure andrographolide indicated that it was mostly due to their andrographolide content.ConclusionsStandardised A. paniculata extracts contained the claimed amount of andrographolide but exhibited considerable phytochemical background variation. DPPH radical scavenging activity of the extracts was mostly due to the flavonoid/phenlycarboxylic acid compounds in the extracts. The inhibitory effect of andrographolide on the release of TNF-α was little affected by the quantitative variation of the non-standardised constituents.
Highlights
The anti-inflammatory activity of Andrographis paniculata (Acanthaceae), a traditional medicine widely used in Asia, is commonly attributed to andrographolide, its main secondary metabolite
A. paniculata extracts exhibit anti-inflammatory activity [13] that is commonly attributed to the ent-labdane diterpenoid andrographolide, its characteristic and main secondary metabolite [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]
All the samples were re-analysed by highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array detection (PDA) for andrographolide content to reconfirm the manufacturer’s certificate of analysis
Summary
The anti-inflammatory activity of Andrographis paniculata (Acanthaceae), a traditional medicine widely used in Asia, is commonly attributed to andrographolide, its main secondary metabolite. Commercial A. paniculata extracts are standardised to andrographolide content. Andrographis paniculata (Acanthaceae), which is endogenous to South India and South East Asia, is used as an herbal medicine in both traditional Indian and Chinese medicine (where it is known as kalmegh and chuanxinlian, respectively) as well as in Malaysia and Thailand [12,13]. A. paniculata extracts exhibit anti-inflammatory activity [13] that is commonly attributed to the ent-labdane diterpenoid andrographolide, its characteristic and main secondary metabolite [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]. A proprietary A. paniculata extract (HMPL-004, Hutchison MediPharma) is under development for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease [36,37] and is currently being tested in a global phase III clinical trial (http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/ NCT01805791)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
