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Chemical and pharmacological studies of Oplopanax horridus, a North American botanical

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Abstract

Oplopanax horridus (OH), or Devil’s club, is an ethnobotanical used by the indigenous people native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. There are three species in the genus Oplopanax, and OH is the only species that is distributed in North America. Compared with the extensive research on OH’s “cousin,” American ginseng, there is comparatively little reported about the chemical makeup and pharmacological effects of OH. Nevertheless, there has been some research over the past few years that shows promise for the future usage perspectives of OH. To date, 17 compounds were isolated and elucidated, including polyynes, glycosides, lignans, and polyenes, with most of the attention being paid to the polyynes. Gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to determine the contents of volatile compounds and polyynes in the essential oil and extracts of OH. For the pharmacological studies, antibacterial and antidiabetes effects of polyynes were reported. Our recent study has focused more on the anticancer effects of OH and the involved mechanisms of action. In this review, we will summarize the research status in the botany, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of OH.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by NIH/NCCAM grants (AT004418, AT005362), the University of Chicago Digestive Disease Research Core Center (5P30DK042086), and a University of Macau grant (UL015/09-Y1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research, and Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, MC 4028, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Tyler Calway, Guang-Jian Du, Chong-Zhi Wang & Chun-Su Yuan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine and Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao, SAR, China

    Wei-Hua Huang, Jing Zhao & Shao-Ping Li

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  1. Tyler Calway
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  2. Guang-Jian Du
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  3. Chong-Zhi Wang
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  6. Shao-Ping Li
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  7. Chun-Su Yuan
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Correspondence to Shao-Ping Li or Chun-Su Yuan.

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Calway, T., Du, GJ., Wang, CZ. et al. Chemical and pharmacological studies of Oplopanax horridus, a North American botanical. J Nat Med 66, 249–256 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-011-0602-2

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