Introducing investigations of a herb extract of the Zhi Mu plant Anemarrhena asphodeloides containing steroid saponins

The central and East Asian plant Anemarrhena asphodeloides is a grasslilly-like wild plant called „Zhi Mu“ in China, Korea and Central Asia and systematically put into the family Liliaceae or a related family. In TCM and the endemous folk medicines, Zhi Mu is tradidionally used against infectious diseases, diabetes and inflammation. However, relatively few information is available concerning the importance of Anemarrhena asphodeloides in the literature [1, 2]. In our investigation, imported Zhi Mu seeds were sown in horticulture in our greenhouse terrain. Aerial parts of the plant were completely harvested, dried and crushed. The material was extracted for 18 hours in a Soxhlett apparatus with acetone to remove higher lipids and pigments and for further 18 hours with ethanol. The ethanolic sample was charged onto silica gel plates for qualitative thin layer chromatography in a conventional system using butanol/ethanol/10% ammonia (50:45:5 v/v) as mobile phase. Steroid saponins were determined by silver nitrate/NaOH, anisaldehyde/sulphuric acid and erythrocytes suspension in parallel [3]. The use of well-known, commercially available steroid saponins as references showed the content of sarsapogenin and hecogenin, but not tigogenin. Furthermore, the existence of further five compounds (R_f=0.14, 0.43, 0.62, 0.71 and 0.89, respectively) was visible. Further investigations will be done concerning the identification of compounds and bio-assays for determination of interesting effects.

Acknowledgements: The author thanks Wolfgang Köning and Sabine Priebe, Berlin, for assistence and consulting in science of gardening, and Mattox BioTec, Chemnitz, for technical support.

References:

1. Baiping, A. et al. (1997) Planta Med 63: 376–379

2. Bao W. et al. (2007) Cell Biol Int 31: 887–892

3. Fenwick, DE., Oakenfull D. (1983)J Sci Food Agric 34: 191–196