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Scutellaria Root extract-induced hepatocytotoxicity can be controlled by regulating its baicalin content

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Abstract

Scuellaria Root (SR, root of Scutellaria baicalensis), which has potent anti-inflammatory effects, is a component of useful Kampo formulae. Albeit a low frequency, SR induces serious interstitial pneumonia and liver dysfunction. In this study, to control the adverse effects of SR, we investigated the causal constituent responsible for its hepatocytotoxicity and aimed to develop a method to control it. As a result, we revealed that the hepatocytotoxicity of SR was correlated with its baicalin content, a major constituent in SR. It was confirmed by preparing a baicalin-free SR extract, which exhibited reduced hepatocytotoxicity. The addition of baicalin to the baicalin-free SR extract restored the hepatocytotoxicity, indicating that the hepatocytotoxicity of SR is dependent on its baicalin content. Thus, SR extract-induced hepatocytotoxicity can be controlled by regulating its baicalin content.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Renee Mosi, PhD, from Edanz (https://jp.edanz.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 22K06676.

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Author notes

  1. Naohiro Oshima

    Present address: Division of Environmental Chemistry, National Institute of Health Sciences, 3-25-26 Tonomachi, Kawasaki-Ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 210-9501, Japan

  2. Naohiro Oshima and Kosuke Kusamori are contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda City, Chiba, 278–8510, Japan

    Naohiro Oshima, Moe Takeda, Takumi Nose, Kazuki Okoshi & Noriyasu Hada

  2. Laboratory of Biopharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda City, Chiba, 278-8510, Japan

    Kosuke Kusamori, Ryo Takasaki, Yuri Katsurada & Makiya Nishikawa

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  1. Naohiro Oshima
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  2. Kosuke Kusamori
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  9. Noriyasu Hada
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Contributions

Conceptualization, N.O.; methodology, N.O., K.K.; cytotoxicity evaluation, R.T., Y.K.; preparation of extracts, M.T., T.N. and K.O.; HPLC analysis, M.T., T.N. and K.O.; data curation, N.O., M.N. and N.H.; writing—original draft preparation, N.O.; writing—review and editing, K.K., K.O.; supervision, M.N. and N.H.; project administration, N.O.; funding acquisition, N.O. All authors have read and agreed to the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Naohiro Oshima, Makiya Nishikawa or Noriyasu Hada.

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Oshima, N., Kusamori, K., Takasaki, R. et al. Scutellaria Root extract-induced hepatocytotoxicity can be controlled by regulating its baicalin content. J Nat Med (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-024-01814-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-024-01814-1

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