Kofujita Hisayoshi, Yaguchi Masashi, Doi Norio
Oct 29, 2004
Citations
2
Influential Citations
29
Citations
Journal
Journal of insect biotechnology and sericology
Abstract
The sericultural field has a long history of producing therapeutic agents. The bark root of Morus alba L. has in the past been used as a blood pressure depressant in China, Korea and Japan. Many alkaloids, flavonoids and their derivatives have been isolated from M. alba as candidates for therapeutic use. Yagi et al. (1976) isolated 1-deoxynojirimycin, called moranoline, from the root bark of mulberry tree, on the basis of the knowledge that mulberry extracts were able to suppress rises in blood glucose. In later studies, eighteen sugar-mimicking alkaloids, including 1-deoxynojirimycin, were isolated from the root bark and leaves of mulberry trees. Some of them exhibit suppressive activity against mammalian α-glucosidases (Asano et al., 1994). These results opened the way to the development of an antihyperglycemic agent using powdered Bombyx silkworms in whom the product was concentrated as a result of feeding on mulberry leaves (Asano et al., 2001; Ryu et al., 2002). The root bark and leaves of M. alba harbor flavones and their derivatives with potential to be developed as biopharmaceuticals and chemotherapeutics (Nomura et al., 1988; Oshima et al., 1980; Doi et al., 2001a, b). We describe the isolation and structural elucidation of a novel prenylflavonoid from the hard-wood cutting root of Kinuyutaka, a cultivar of M. alba. This novel prenylflavonoid exhibited cytotoxic activity against rat hepatoma cells.