Chinese Herb: She Chuang Zi Chemical Composition

As an insecticidal and antipruritic Chinese medicine, Cnidium has many pharmacological effects. Cnidium Monnieri Extract has good application value. The chemical composition of Cnidium is summarized below.

What Does Cnidium Monnieri Contain?

1. Coumarin

Coumarins are the main components of Cnidium, among which simple coumarin and furanocoumarin are the main components. Coumarin, as the main chemical component related to the pharmacological action of Cnidium, plays an important role in the treatment of cardiovascular system diseases.

2. Volatile oils

In addition to coumarins, Cnidium spp. extracts also include terpenes, terpene esters, terpene alcohols and aldehydes, alkanes and general ester compounds with isoprene structural units. These are the main components of volatile oils.

The composition of volatile oil obtained by different extraction methods will also be slightly different in different origins.

The analysis of the volatile oil of Cnidium showed that terpenoids accounted for 82% of the total volatile oil. Fatty acids were the second and accounted for 12.3% of the total. The terpenoids are dominated by monoterpenoids, accounting for 54.3% of the terpenoids. The highest content was bornyl acetate (20.04%), followed by D-limonene (8.58%). The main sesquiterpenes were carvyl propionate (6.80%), β-cedrene and farnesene.

In traditional medicine, Cnidium is mainly used to kill insects and relieve itching. However, modern research believes that its material basis is the volatile oils contained in it, which provides a new guiding role for traditional medicine rules.

3. Other ingredients

The main pharmacologically active components in Cnidium also include flavonoids. The 75% alcoholic extract of Cnidium chinensis was separated and ten chromone compounds were obtained. The compounds were identified as cnidimoside A, cnidimol B, genus chromone, 7-cnidone, cimicidin, 5-hydroxychromone-7-O-β-glucoside. There are also some steroids in Cnidium, campesterol, stigmasterol and γ-sitosterol also have certain medicinal value.

Summary

The extensive pharmacological effects of Cnidium are closely related to its complex chemical composition. In addition to coumarin, volatile oil, and flavonoids, there are other components, which may also be related to their pharmacological effects.