B. Ma, Hai-You Yu, Jin-Wen Shen
Oct 6, 2010
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0
Influential Citations
21
Citations
Journal
The Journal of Antibiotics
Abstract
Hericium erinaceum is a mushroom belonging to the family Hericiaceae and has been used as medicine or food in China and Japan without harmful effects. H. erinaceum grows on old or dead broadleaf trees and has been used as medicine for treatment of gastricism in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 1000 years. Recently, the chemical constituents of H. erinaceum have been investigated for its interesting and significant bioactivities.1,2 Hericenones A and B were isolated from the fruiting body of H. erinaceum as cytotoxic principles against Hela cells.3 Hericenones C, D and E exhibited stimulating activity to the synthesis of nerve growth factor in vitro.4–7 In the presence of hericenones C, D, E and H at 33mg ml 1, mouse astroglial cells secreted 23.5±1.0, 10.8±0.8, 13.9±2.1 and 45.1±1.1 pg per ml nerve growth factor into the culture medium, respectively. The degree of activity for hericenone D was almost at the same level as that of a potent stimulator, epinephrine. It is of interest that the difference in activity among those compounds was dependent on the nature of the fatty acid. These results suggest the usefulness of H. erinaceum for the treatment and prevention of dementia. In the course of our continuing search for new active compounds from mushroom, we found two new aromatic compounds, namely hericenone I and hericene D. In this report, we described the isolation, structural elucidation and cytotoxic activity of hericenone I and hericene D (Figure 1).