Medicinal Plants Classification Biosynthesis and ... - Index of

6.6. Other Bioactivities
Biosyntheses and Bioactivities of Flavonoids in the Medicinal...
The antioxidant and free radical scavenging, anti-inflammation, anticancer, antibacterium
and antivirus properties of flavonoids of S. baicalensis Georgi have been discussed in
Sections 6.1-6.5. In this section, the bioactivities of baicalin, baicalein, wogonin, wogonin 7-
O-glucuronide and oroxylin A are summarized in Tables 1-5, respectively. As shown in
Tables 1-5, the flavonoids of S. baicalensis Georgi have a variety of bioactivities.
7. Conclusion
Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is one of the most widely used medicinal plants. It
contains over 30 kinds of flavonoids, and baicalin, baicalein, wogonin, wogonin 7-Oglucuronide
and oroxylin A are the main active components. The chemical structures, natural
resources, biosyntheses, analytical methods and biological activities of the flavonoids have
been summarized and discussed in this chapter. Tremendous progress has been achieved for
the biosyntheses and biological activities of flavonoids in S. baicalensis Georgi. Biosyntheses
of the flavonoids from S. baicalensis Georgi were carried out mostly using cells or organs
culture system, and the strategies used for improving the flavonoids production efficiency
included media optimization, biotransformation, elicitation, Agrobacterium transformation
and scale-up. Most of the biological activities, such as antioxidant and free radical
scavenging, anti-inflammation, anticancer, antibacterium and antivirus, are closely related to
the clinical applications of S. baicalensis Georgi for anti-inflammation, anticancer, reducing
the total cholesterol level, treating bacterial and viral infections of the respiratory and the
gastrointestinal tracts. In the future, bioactive components at highly purity should be used
instead of crude extracts in medicinal preparations. In order to explore more effective herbal
products based on S. baicalensis Georgi, more widely pharmacological studies should be
carried out to determine new pharmacodynamic effects, such as anti-SARS coronavirus. In
addition, more attention should be paid to minor flavonoids in S. baicalensis Georgi because
special pharmacodynamic effects may be found from minor flavonoids. The structural
diversity and the pronounced biological activities encountered in the flavonoids of S.
baicalensis indicate that this class of compounds is worthy of further studies that may lead to
new drug discovery.
References
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Alan, A. R., Zeng, H. Y., Assani, A., Shi, W. L., McRae, H. E., Murch, S. J. & Saxena, P. K.
(2007). Assessment of genetic stability of the germplasm lines of medicinal plant
Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Huang-qin) in long-term, in vitro maintained cultures.
Plant Cell Reports, 26, 1345-1355.
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