Planta Med 2013; 79 - PN57
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1348738

Isolation and Identification of an Autophagy-Inducing Compound from Raphani Semen

MY Gu 1, 2, HC Kwon 1, JW Cha 1, WJ Lee 2 HO Yang 1*
  • 1Natural Medicine Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Gangneung 210 – 340, Republic of Korea
  • 2Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, 210 – 702, Republic of Korea

The autophagy-lysosomal pathway is an important protein degradation system, and its dysfunction has been implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease. Raphani Semen, one of the herbals of Yeoldahanso-tang (YH), has neuroprotective effects via the autophagy pathway. The activity-guided method was used to isolate and identify the components of Raphani Semen. In this experiment, the total extract of Raphani Semen was partitioned to n-butanol, methylene chloride, and water fractions. Flow cytometry data showed that only the water fraction showed autophagy-inducing activity in vitro. Then, Compounds 1 and 2 were isolated from this water fraction by preparative HPLC separation. The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were identified as stachyose and raffinose, respectively, by the analysis of various spectral data (1H NMR, 13C NMR, and MS) and comparisons with standard stachyose and raffinose. Of these two compounds, raffinose showed autophagy-inducing activity in PC12 cells through the mTOR pathway.