Pharmacological studies on puerariae flos. I. The effects of puerariae flos on alcoholic metabolism and spontaneous movement in mice

Abstract

In the general rule, Puerariae Flos or it's combination drugs are used in traditional medicinal system for counteraction to drinking among Japanese and Chinese therapy. One of such drugs is Kakkakaiseito. Here we report the results of investigation on some pharmacological actions including alcoholic metabolism. The experiments were carried out to confirm its actual effect on alcohol, acetaldehyde and ketone body metabolism in the blood and the alteration of behaviour pattern of mice. Drugs used in this study were methanolic extract (PF-ME), isoflavonoid fraction (PF-IF) and triterpenoid saponin fraction (PF-SP) isolated from Puerariae Flos. Each drug was orally administrated to mice. These results were shown as follows: the concentrations of blood alcohol and acetaldehyde decreased more after the treatment with PF-IF (800 mg/kg) than those of the control group. This fact was evidenced remarkable effects with area under the blood concentration-time curve, mean residence time, and variance residence time and values on the moment analysis. However, a reduction effect was not recognized by the treatment with PF-SP (1000 mg/kg). Moreover, PF-ME and PF-IF suppressed the increment of spontaneous movement induced by alcohol administration, whereas PF-SP did not prevent the decrease in the increment caused by alcohol administration. These results support the basis that Puerariae Flos or its combination drugs is used in a traditional medicinal system for counteraction to drinking. However, further investigation is necessary.