Planta Med 1997; 63(3): 277-280
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-957676
Letters

© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Lignans in the Seeds and Fruits of Schisandra chinensis Cultured in Europe

Jiři Slanina1 , Eva Táborská1 , Lea Lojková2
  • 1Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Komenského nám. 2, CZ-662 43 Brno, Czech Republic
  • 2Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Veveré 97, CZ-611 42 Brno, Czech Republic
Further Information

Publication History

1996

1996

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

Abstract

The fruits of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. (Schisandraceae/Magnoliaceae) are a traditional Oriental medicine possessing adaptogenic and hepatoprotective activities. The lignan content in seeds and fruits of the species cultured in various European locations has been investigated. The lignans were extracted from 17 samples of the seeds with supercritical CO2 and the major components - schizandrin (1), gomisin A (2), de-oxyschizandrin (3), gomisin N (4), and wuweizisu C (5 - were quantified by HPLC. Compounds 1-5 were present in the seeds in the range 0.75-1.86, 0.13-0.90, 0.07-1.09, 0.24-1.49, and 0.01 -0.34 %, respectively. It was found that the plants cultivated in Europe accumulated comparable amounts of lignans as those of the natural distribution range.