Phytochemical and Biological Investigations on Paeonia lactiflora and P. obovata

Paeony is a perennial herb and used for clearing heat, cooling blood and dispel stasis. Paeonia lactiflora and P. obovata are the roots of Paeony, which have been consumed as 'Joek-Jak-Yak' and 'San-Jak-Yak', respectively in Korea. There is no scientific report exists for the differences between two in biological activities. Hence, the present study was undertaken to compare the biological activity including the antiulcer activity of 50% methanol extracts obtained from P. lactiflora and P. obovata using HCl/ethanol-induced gastric ulcer model in mice. As a result, P. lactiflora (88.8% at 100 mg/kg dose) showed greater anti-gastric ulcer activity than P. obovata (62.3% at 100 mg/kg dose). In addition, P. lactiflora (IC₅₀ 16.4 µg/mL) showed higher DPPH radical scavenging activity than P. obovata (IC₅₀ 36.7 µg/mL). Both 50% methanol extract of P. lactiflora and P. obovata significantly decreased NO production in a murine macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7, up to 35.0% and 29.9%, respectively, at the concentration of 100 µg/mL. HPLC chromatograms showing the variations in bioactive component contents as well as colorimetric comparison between Paeonia lactiflora and P. obovata will be presented. Acknowledgements: This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy(MOTIE), Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) through the Inter-ER Cooperation Projects (Grant # A004500005).