Research Progress on Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Actions of Psoralea Fructus / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Psoralea Fructus,a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine in clinical application,is warm, spicy and bitter in nature and belongs to the kidney and spleen meridian. Psoralea Fructus has the function of warming kidney and tonifying yang,absorbing Qi and relieving asthma,warming spleen and stopping diarrhea,and in topical use, it can remove beverage. In recent years,considerable progress has been made in the study of chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of Psoralea Fructus. Nearly one hundred compounds have been isolated from it,including coumarins,flavonoids,and meroterpenes,and various types of compounds such as lipids,glycosides,volatile oils,and trace elements have been also found in Psoralea Fructus. In this article, the original literature was reviewed to summarize the main compound types and structural formula, with detailed reviews on pharmacological studies about its anti-tumor,anti-oxidant,anti-bacterial,anti-inflammatory,anti-depressive,regulating estrogen level,promoting bone growth,liver protection,and neuroprotection effects. In addition, the compounds with the same or similar pharmacological effects were sorted out and summarized to correlate the chemical structure and pharmacology. Psoralea Fructus and its modern preparations are widely used in modern clinical practice. The researches and papers on chemical constituents of Psoralea Fructus at home and abroad and the papers on pharmacological activities in recent years were reviewed,and the chemical types of individual compounds were corrected in this article,providing a reference for further study of Psoralea Fructus in efficacy material basis,quality standards and pharmacological activities.