• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.373-384
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• 2020

Paeonol, quercetin, β-sitosterol, and gallic acid extracted from Moutan Cortex had been reported to possess anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor activities. This work aimed to illustrate the potential anti-oxidative mechanism of monomers in human liver hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells-induced by hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and to evaluate whether the hepatoprotective effect of monomers was independence or synergy in mice stimulated by carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄). Monomers protected against oxidative stress in HepG2 cells in a dose-response manner by inhibiting the generation of reactive oxygen species, increasing total antioxidant capacity, catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, and activating the antioxidative pathway of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2/Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Nrf2/Keap1) signaling pathway. We found that the in vitro antioxidant capacities of paeonol and quercetin were better than those of β-sitosterol and gallic acid. Furthermore, paeonol apparently diminished the levels of alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase, augmented the contents of glutathione and SOD, promoted the expressions of Nrf2 and heme oxygenase-1 proteins in mice stimulated by CCl₄. In HepG2 cells, paeonol, quercetin, β-sitosterol, and gallic acid play a defensive role against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress through activating Nrf2/Keap1 pathway, indicating that these monomers have anti-oxidative properties. Totally, paeonol and quercetin exerted anti-oxidative and hepatoprotective effects, which is independent rather than synergy.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 1994

To get a fundamental data fur management of security, validity, Quality, of Paeonia suffruficosa roots as medicinal herb, the content of paeonol, ash, and inorganic components in Moutan Radicis Cortex produced in 8 regions of Korea was investigated from Oct. 1990 to May 1991. The results are summarized as follows: The average content of paeonol was 0.65%. The content of ash was 3.53%, acid-insoluble ash 0.77% in average, both of them were suitable to the standard value as Korean medical herbs. Total nitrogen content was 1.03%, phosphate 0.55%, potassium 0.82%, and calcium 1.50% in average. The content of MgO was 0.21ppm, 325.83ppm in Fe, 1.82ppm in Cr, 3.73ppm in Cu, 18.93ppm in Zn and Mn 21.27ppm, respectively. Especially Hg was not detected in the products of all regions. The average content of Cd was 0.25ppm, Pb 3.09ppm in Moutan Radicis Cortex, so they were estimated suitably to use as medicinal herb.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.283-287
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• 1992

This experiment was carried in order to compare some propagation methods and the effective components in the root of Paeonia albiflora pallas, Paeonia moutan Sims and Paeonia albiflora pallas root grafted with Paeonia mouton sims The optimum seeding time of August 20 to september 10 for increasing germination ratio. The growing and developing of Paeonia albiflora Pall. for root dividing methods was advantageous to practice at Autum than at spring season. The shoot cutting method during the flowering time was proper to increase the rooting ratio with the aid of Ruton, the plant growth regulator but not emerged of apical bud. The grafting stages between the Paeonia albiflora pall. and Paeonia moutan Sims was available to practice during the September for increasing the thickness growth of root. Among the effective components of the paeony the paeoniflorin was shown high, while paeonol in paeony moutan. The paeoniflorin of herbaceous paeony / paeony moutan was increased about 75.9% than herbaceous paeony alone, and the other compoents are similar to those of herbaceous paeony root.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.180-184
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to develop the best methods to sterilize Moutan Root Bark which is frequently used as a herbal medicine, and known to have high susceptibility to m icrobial contamination. We used dry heat, gamma irradiation and alcohol gas treatment for sterilization, and evaluated these methods in terms of the followings; I) the efficacy of sterilization, and ii) the chemical alteration of a major component of the harbal medicines. Treatment with dry heat effectively got rid of contaminated microorganisms, and did not significantly alter the content of paeonol. However it seriously changed the color and morphology which are an essential criterion to estimate a measure of quality of medicinal herbs. Treatment with gamma irradiation showed a strong sterilizing effect, and no alteration of the content of paeonol, color and morphology. Alcohol gas treatment resulted in similar effects as those in gamma irradiation. Collectively, these results suggest that appropriate sterilizing methods to guarantee the microbial quality of this herbal medicine may be those using gamma irradiation or alcohol gas.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.174-177
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• 2003

The present experiment was performed to investigate the protective effects of paeonol isolated from Moutan Cortex Radicis on primary cultured rat hepatocytes exposed to Br-A23187 ($Ca^{2+}$ ionophore). Br-A23187 is frequently used as a model of cell killing as inducing both necrotic and apoptotic cell death. Hepatocytes were isolated by collagenase perfusion from livers of fasted male Sprague Dawley rats and cultured overnight. Cell viability was determined by propidium iodide using fluorocytometry in Krebs-Ringer-HEPES buffer at pH 7.4. In addition, intracellular calcium was measured by excitation at 340 and 380 nm and emission at 505 nm using a luminescence spectrophotometer. Paeonol (20-100 ${\mu}M$) inhibited cell killing induced by 10 ${\mu}M$ Br-A23187, in a dose-dependent manner. Paeonol also reduced increased intracellular calcium level when hepatocytes were exposed to Br-A23187. Therefore, the present results suggest that paeonol protects the hepatocytotoxicity induced by Br-A23187, via inhibiting the influx of calcium into into rat hepatocytes.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.341-346
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• 2014

Paeonol is a major phenolic micromolecular component of Moutan cortex Radicis, a traditional Chinese Medicine. It has shown antitumor effects in previous studies; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. This study investigated the mechanism by giving treatments of placebo, cyclophosphamide, paeonol of 150 and 300 mg/kg to 4 groups of mice bearing EMT6 breast cancer. Apoptosis in tumor cells were confirmed by morphology analysis, including hematoxylin, eosin staining and TUNEL staining. The results showed that the weight of EMT6 breast tumor was significantly reduced in the groups treated with both 150 and 300 mg/kg of paeonol. Immunohistochemical and Western blot results showed that the expression of Bcl-2 was down-regulated while the expression of Bax, caspase 8 and caspase 3 was up-regulated respectively. These results suggest that paeonol exhibits antitumor effects and the mechanism of the inhibition is via induction of apoptosis, regulation of Bcl-2 and Bax expression, and activation of caspase 8 and caspase 3.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.536-542
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• 2016

Shuangdan oral liquid (SDO) containing radix Salviae miltiorrhizae (Chinese name Danshen) and cortex moutan (Chinese name Mudanpi) is a traditional Chinese medicine using for treating vascular diseases. Danshensu (DSS) is a main effective monomer composition derived from radix Salviae miltiorrhizae and paeonol (Pae) from cortex moutan. Although the two herbs are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, the pharmacological functions of their active compositions were not reported. Therefore, the research of DSS and Pae in mechanisms and pharmacodynamics interaction can provide scientific evidence to support clinical application. The diabetic nephropathy (DN) rats which were induced by streptozotocin (STZ) were treated with SDO, DSS, Pae, and DSS+Pae for eight weeks. The positive effects on DN animal models were investigated by detection of physiological and biochemical indexes and oxidative stress markers, within five treatments: SDO, DSS, Pae, DSS+Pae and insulin group. Compared with the model group, the DSS+Pae group improved the renal function, blood lipid metabolism and blood viscosity, increased the vitality of T-SOD or T-AOC and decreased the level of MDA or NO after the treatment. The study was successfully showed that the DSS+Pae group could delay the process of DN, especially in the renal injury part of histopathology changes. Our results suggest that the co-administration of DSS and Pae significantly may play a protective role in DN rats through decreasing the oxidative stress and improving the blood lipid metabolism mechanisms.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2016

Epidermis is continuously regenerated by keratinocyte stem cells (KSCs) residing in basement membrane, which is critical to the survival of an organism. KSCs are believed to persist during the whole lifetime and generate an enormous number of keratinocytes, required for the maintenance of epidermis, through transit amplifying cells dividing definite times until they become differentiated. In this report, we have developed a phenolic compound, paeonol, purified from Moutan Cortex, as a KSC proliferation activator, by screening about 350 herbal compounds. The cell proliferation activation by paeonol is specific for KSC not for keratinocyte, and no significant difference in the expression of p63 protein, a KSC marker, in KSCs treated with paeonol was observed in FACS analysis with anti-p63 antibody. In the colony forming assay, paeonol-treated KSC showed improved colony forming activity more than 1.3 fold. In addition, the result of PCR array shows that the activity of paeonol is through several signal pathways involving stem cell functions. These results suggest that paeonol could enhance KSC proliferation activity without reduction in stemness and could be applied to cosmetics as a KSC activating ingredient.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.255-261
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• 2004

The MeOH extracts from 21 species were tested for their cytotoxicity against SK-MEL-28 melanoma cell line and HaCat normal cell line in 5 g/ml by sulforrhodamine-B (SRB) method. Among them, the MeOH extract from Moutan Cortex Radicis showed the moderate activity with the growth rate of 74.3% in SK-MEL-28 cells and the high activity with the growth rate of 207.8% in HaCat cells. Activity-guided fractionation was performed and five compounds, paeonol (1), benzoylpaeoniflorin (2), benzoic acid (3), 2,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxy- acetophenone (4), paeonfliorin (5) were isolated from hexane and EtOAc fraction. The structures were established by physicochemical and spectrometric methods $(mp,\;UV,\;IR,\;^1H-NMR,\;^{13}C-NMR,\;spectram)$. All compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxicity, compound 4 showed the significant cytotoxic activity with $ED_50$ value of $5.92\;{\mu}g/ml$, but the other compounds no activity. These results suggest that compound 4 is a novel anticancer candidate against SK-MEL-28 melanoma cells.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.261-267
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• 1996

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of various fertilizers on the growth and yield of tree peony Moutan cortex RADICIS from 1990 to 1994. The paeonol content, a main medical ingredient of tree peony, was 0.5% in the control, and the contents of the chemical fertilizer(N-P-K) and the two-kind compound fertilizer treatments were $0.26{\sim}0.41%$, and those were lower than $0.40{\sim}0.45$ of the compost, the fowl dropping manure and the organic fertilizer treatments. The weights off dry root(radix) rind were increased by 42% in the fowl dropping manure treatment and by 49% in the compost treatment compared with 151kg/10a in the control. All things considered, compost, fowl dropping manure and organic fertilizer were more effective than chemical fertilizers for the culture of tree peony.