• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.141-146
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• 2012

Veronica peregrina (Scrophylariaceae) has been widely used as a Korean traditional medicine for the treatment of various pathological conditions including infection, hemorrhage and gastric ulcer. In the current study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of methanolic extracts of V. Peregrina (VPM) on the LPS-mediated nitric oxide (NO) production in mouse (C57BL/6) peritoneal macrophages. NO production was significantly down-regulated by the treatment of VPM dose dependently. To evaluate the mechanism of the inhibitory action of VPM on NO production, we performed iNOS enzyme activity assay and checked the change of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels by Western blotting. Although VPM did not affect iNOS enzyme activity, iNOS protein expression was attenuated by VPM indicating VPM inhibits NO production via suppression of iNOS enzyme expression. In addition, VPM attenuated the expression of another pro-inflammatory mediator such as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in a dose dependent manner. We also found that VPM can reduce trypsin-induced paw edema in mice. Based on this study, we suggest that V. peregrina may be beneficial in diseases which related to macrophage-mediated inflammatory disorders.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.142-146
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• 2011

In the course of screening for antioxidant compounds by measuring the radical scavenging effect on 1,1-diphenyl- 2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), a total extract from the whole plant of Veronica peregrina (Scrophulariaceae) was found to show potent antioxidant activity. Subsequent activity-guided fractionation of the methanolic extract led to the isolation of six phenolic compounds including chrysoeriol (1), diosmetin (2), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (3), apigenin (4), caffeic acid methylester (5) and protocatechuic acid (6). Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic studies. Compounds 1-5 were isolated for the first time from this plant. Compounds 5 and 6 showed significant antioxidative effects in DPPH free radical scavenging and superoxide quenching activity assays.