Comparison of activity and components of Sophora flavescens root and seed

Abstract

Infectious diseases are amongst the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. The Sophora flavescens root (traditional Chinese medicine “kushen”) is recognized as a strong anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory Chinese herb, and widely used for clinical application. However, the ever-increasing demand for natural antibacterial agent is fostering the insufficient supply of “kushen”. This study was conducted for the first time to explore the feasibility of Sophora flavescens seed used as a supplement of Sophora flavescens root to alleviate the shortage of “kushen” resources. To accomplish this, the seed and root of Sophora flavescens were extracted by ultrasound-assisted extraction method. The antimicrobial activities of Sophora flavescens seed and root against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus tetragenus and Proteus species were compared by agar well diffusion method. And the phytochemical constituents from seed and root were analyzed by TLC, chromogenic reaction method, HPLC and GC/MS. The results revealed that different solvent fraction from Sophora flavescens root and seed exhibited different degrees of antibacterial activity. The chloroform fraction, ethyl acetate fraction and anhydrous ethanol fraction of Sophora flavescens root had obvious antibacterial activity. However, the best antibacterial activity of Sophora flavescens seed was achieved with the 80% ethanol extracts. Furthermore, the analysis of phytochemical compositions showed that the antibacterial-activity component profiles of Sophora flavescens seed were different from that of roots. This study clearly reveal that Sophora flavescens seed is unsuitable as a straight substitution of “kushen” due to the differences in their active component, but it has the potential to be used as a promising source of antibacterial agent, which could be utilized in clinical application and pharmaceutical industry, just as Sophora flavescens root.