Abstract
Echinacoside (ECH), a natural phenylethanoid glycoside, was first isolated from Echinacea angustifolia DC. (Compositae) sixty years ago. It was found to possess numerous pharmacologically beneficial activities for human health, especially the neuroprotective and cardiovascular effects. Although ECH showed promising potential for treatment of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, some important issues arose. These included the identification of active metabolites as having poor bioavailability in prototype form, the definite molecular signal pathways or targets of ECH with the above effects, and limited reliable clinical trials. Thus, it remains unresolved as to whether scientific research can reasonably make use of this natural compound. A systematic summary and knowledge of future prospects are necessary to facilitate further studies for this natural product. The present review generalizes and analyzes the current knowledge on ECH, including its broad distribution, different preparation technologies, poor pharmacokinetics and kinds of therapeutic uses, and the future perspectives of its potential application.
Highlights
Treasure from the GardenThe Discovery and Distribution of ECHPhenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs) are naturally occurring water-soluble compounds that are widely distributed in the plant kingdom, and most of which are isolated from garden plants and medicinal herbs
PhGs are mainly metabolized in large intestine, and the content of ECH fell from 48% to 16%, a portion of which was transformed into acteoside
Given the above potential in pharmaceutical applications, the preparations of ECH including the classic isolation from herbs, plant cell/tissue culture and even the chemical synthesis have attracted the interests of plenty pharmaceutical scientists
Summary
Phenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs) are naturally occurring water-soluble compounds that are widely distributed in the plant kingdom, and most of which are isolated from garden plants and medicinal herbs. These compounds are characterized by cinnamic acid and hydroxyl phenyl ethyl moieties that are attached to a β-glucopyranose (apiose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose, etc.). [5] and successively found in 40 plant species [6,7,8,9,10,11,12] belonging to 18 genus and 10 families (Figure 2).
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