EUROMEDICA  Hanover 6-7  Juni 2008	Advanced methods of diagnosis, treatment and prophylactics
	European Academy of Natural Sciences, Hanover European Scientific Society, Hanover Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow

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The phenolic compounds of medicinal plants are the perspective sources of the adaptogenic, tonic, nootropic, antidepressive, anxiolytic, immunostimulating, antiviral, hepatoprotective, cholagogic and antioxidant pharmaceuticals. As a results of studies the chemical composition of a whole series of medicinal plants were isolated more than 150 substances (simple phenols, phenylpropanoids, coumarins, flavonoids), among which are new 20 compounds. The structural elucidation of isolated compounds was carried out with the use of UV-, NMR-spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, different chemical transformations. On the basis of the study of physical-chemical, spectral properties there was developed the new classification of phenol compounds, which was included in the textbook “Pharmacognosy” (V.A. Kurkin, 2004; 2007). There were established relationships between of the spectral and pharmacological activities of phenylpropanoids, flavonoids and of their chemical structures. It was substantiated the need for introduction into pharmacognosy of phenylpropanoids as the independent class of biologically active compounds, which was reflected in the textbook “Pharmacognosy” (V.A. Kurkin, 2004; 2007). Besides, in accordingly with new chemical classification of the medicinal plants (V.A. Kurkin, 2002) there were introduced in the pharmacognosy so classes of biologically active phenolic compounds as xanthones and quinones. The above-mentioned textbook includes the description of a whole series of the new medicinal plants, which contain the phenolic compounds: Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench., Syringa vulgaris L., Arctium lappa L., Viscum album L., Salix acutifolia Willd., Filipendula ulmaria (L.) Maxim., Ginkgo biloba L., Aerva lanata Juss., Lespedeza sp., Phaseolus vulgaris L., Avena sativa L., Hibiscus sabdaraffa L., Helichrysum italicum (Roth.) G. Don., Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilib., Juglans regia L., Hedysarum alpinum L. In the present time the Pharmacopoeia of Russia contains about 30 medicinal plants, which are attributed to the flavonoids as the leader group of biologically active compounds. Besides, in the case of 25 medicinal plants, contained essential oil, saponins and other substances, the flavonoids are interesting as biologically active compounds, namely: Tanacetum vulgare L., Mentha piperita L., Betula pubescens Ehrh., Melissa officinalis L., Artemisia dracunculus L., Populus nigra L., Salix acutifolia Willd., Calendula officinalis L., Aesculus hippocastanum L., Rhodiola rosea L. etc.

In the present paper are discussed also the actual aspects of the modern standardization of the drugs and the phytopharmaceuticals. The new possibilities for the development of pharmacognosy gives the use of the thin layer chromatography, the high performance liquid chromatography, UV-, UR-, ¹H-NMR-, ¹³C-NMR-spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and other modern chemical, physical-chemical and spectral methods. The modern standardization must be based on the use of standard samples in the analytical methods for purpose of the identification and quantitative determination of biologically active compounds in the drugs and the phytopharmaceuticals. In the course of our investigations there were proposed the series of standard samples for purpose of the standardization of Rhodiola rosea L. rhizomes (rosavin), Rhodiola rosea L. tissue cultures (triandrin), Salix viminalis L. barks (triandrin), Eleutherococcus senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Maxim. rhizomes (syringin or eleutheroside B), Syringa vulgaris L. barks (syringin), Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. fruits. (silybin), Betula pubescens Ehrh. leaves, Hypericum perforatum L. herbs (hyperoside), Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilib. herbs (rutin), Glycyrrhiza glabra L. roots (licuraside), Populus nigra L. buds (pinostrobin), Salix acutifolia Willd. barks, Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench. flowers (isosalipurposide).

Introduction. The phenylpropanoids are perspective biologically active compounds of medicinal plants which are of the great interest as the sources of the tonic, immunostimulating, adaptogenic, antioxidative and hepatoprotective phytopharmaceuticals. The greatest interest are glycosides of cinnamic alcohol, pcoumaric alcohol, sinapic alcohol of Salix viminalis L. barks (triandrin), Rhodiola rosea

L. tissue cultures (triandrin), Rhodiola rosea L. rhizomes (rosavin), Eleutherococcus senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Maxim. rhizomes (syringin or eleutheroside B), Syringa vulgaris L. barks (syringin), and also flavolignan silybin from Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. fruits. Besides it should be to consider as perspective medicinal plants, contained the cinnamic acids and its derivatives namely rosmarinic acid (Melissa officinalis L.) and cichoric acid (Echinacea species), which cause the immunostimulating and antiviral activities of the preparations from the drugs of these plants. The above-mentioned medicinal plants are of the great interest for homoeopathy.

Material and Methods. For our experiments we collected the plant materials of Rhodiola rosea (rhizomes), Syringa vulgaris (barks), Silybum marianum (fruits), Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench. (herbs) and Melissa officinalis L.(herbs), cultivated in Samara region. The some drugs were collected from widely distributed plants in Samara region (Salix viminalis barks) or in Khabarovsk Krai (Eleutherococcus senticosus rhizomes). There was studied also the biomass of Rhodiola rosea L. tissue cultures. The structural elucidation of the isolated phenylpropanoids was carried out by means of the UV-, ¹H-NMR-spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and several chemical transformations (acetylation, methylation, acid and enzymatic hydrolysis). Methods of identification of drugs and preparations of mentioned plants were developed with the use of TLC and HPLC. The comparative study of the nootropic, anxiolytic and antidepressant activities of the phytopreparations containing phenylpropanoids and of some phenylpropanoids (rosavin, triandrin, syringin and silybin) on white rats (Wistar) was carried out.

Results und Discussion. It was shown that triandrin (9-0-β-D-glucopyranoside of p-coumaric alcohol), rosavin (vicianoside of cinnamic alcohol), syringin (4-0-β-D-glucopyranoside of sinapic alcohol) and silybin are diagnostic and dominant biologically active compounds of corresponding drugs and preparations. The standard samples of triandrin (R. rosea tissue cultures, S. viminalis barks), rosavin (R. rosea rhizomes), syringin (E. senticosus rhizomes, S. vulgaris barks), and silybin (S. marianum fruits) are proposed to be used for standardization (TLC-, HPLC-analysis and UV-spectroscopy) of the mentioned medicinal plants and of their preparations. There was shown, that Rhodiola rosea L. tinctures and Echinacea purpurea tinctures are perspective nootropic phytopharmaceuticals. The greatest anxiolytic activities there were shown for the Rhodiola rosea tinctures, Melissa officinalis tinctures, Syringa vulgaris tinctures. Phytopreparations Melissa officinalis tinctures, Eleutherococcus senticosus fluid extracts and Syringa vulgaris tinctures are interesting as antidepressant preparations. There were established the relationships between the chemical structures of phenylpropanoids (rosavin, triandrin, syringin and silybin) and of their spectral properties and biologically activities. There was determined the greatest anxiolytic effect for phenylpropanoids syringin (from Eleutherococcus senticosus rhizomes, Syringa vulgaris barks) and rosavin (from Rhodiola rosea rhizomes). The nootropic activities of phenylpropanoids are decreased in the range of rosavin > triandrin > syringin > silybin.