Antinociceptive Activity of Eryngium kotschyi Boiss. Root Extracts

Eryngium species, belonging to Apiaceae family are well known plants in ethnobotanical culture in the world and also in Turkey. They are used as antitussive, diuretic as well as for analgesic and antiinflammatory purposes in traditional medicine. Although they have a wide usage in traditional medicine, there are only a few number of studies concerning biological activity of Eryngium species to confirm their usage. In our previous studies, it was reported that the roots of Eryngium kotschyi Boiss. have significant antinociceptive and antiinflammatory activity. Based on these results, we tried to find compounds responsible for the antinociceptive activity of this plant by a bioguided fractionation of methanolic extracts using different nociception models (acetic acid induced writhing test and hot plate test). This procedures allow us to isolate a new triterpene saponin (Compound 1), with a moderate antinociceptive activity (control: 8.33±0.67s, Compound 1: 14,33±0,33s, P<0.05 with hot plate test), which is characterized as 3-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-(1→2)-[α-L-arabinopyranosyl-(1→3)]-β-D-glucurunopyranosyl-22-O-angeloyl-A1-barrigenol. The isolation was done by using several chromatographic steps (medium pressure liquid chromatography, flash chromatography, on normal and reversed phase silica gel), and the structure elucidation was achieved by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy (COSY, TOCSY, HSQC, HMBC) and FABMS.