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SCHISANDRA CHINENSIS

A summary of publications

The dried berries of Schisandra chinensis Baill. or S. sphenanthera have been used in the traditional Chinese medicine as tonic and sedative since more than 2000 years. Schisandra (the spelling Schizandra is common but actually not correct) is a vine belonging to the Magnoliaceae which is being been culitvated in recent years also in Europe. Dried Schisandra berries are administered in dosages from 2 to 5 g (KEYS 1976, TANG & EISENBRAND 1992). As Schisandrae Fructus they are described in the chinese pharmacopoeia. Schisandra has been subject of extensive chemical analytical anf pharmacological investigations. As active components lignanes were identified, e.g. the groups of Schizanterines, Gomisins and Schizandroles. The percentage of the Lignanes varies from 7.2% to 19.2% in dependence of the variety and geographical provenance. Pharmacological studies have been carried out with the original drug, with extracts as well as with isolated lignanes. (TANG & EISENBRAND 1992).

OHTAKI (1996) investigated the protective effect of Gomisin A, a priincipal lignane of S. sinensis, against experimentally induced neoplasms of the liver. The substance has apparently an anti-promotor effect which is presumably based on an enhance gallic acid metabolism. A further investigation of the hepatoprotective properties of S. sinensis has been done by IP (1996). The effect of Schisandra lignanes is assumed to be partly caused by quenching of free radicals. LIU (1989) showed a protective effect of ethanolic Schisandra extract in cases of tetrachloro carbon poisoning. The liver toxicity of tetrachloro carbon poisoning is caused by the generation of trichloromethyl radicals formed in presence of Cytochrom P450. Die trichloro methyl radicals react with oxygen to peroxy trichloromethyl radicals which initiate a rapid lipid peroxidation. The radical formation by tetrachloro carbon may therefore serve as a model reaction for damages caused by free radicals in general. LU and LIU (1992) determined the antioxidative properties of various S. sinensis lignanes in comparison with vitamin E. The majority of the invstigated lignanes were in in-vitro assays clearly more effective than vitmamin E. A triterpene isolated from S. sphaerandra was described by SUN et al. (1996) as inhibitor of the reverse transkriptase of HIV and can therefore be considered a potential anti AIDS agent. NISHIYAMA and coworker (1995) have tested a combined phytotherapeutic preparation of S. sinensis, Biota orientalis and P. ginseng on mice whose learning capability had been affected by adinistration of alcohol and scopolamine. An improvement of the memory was observed. Comparable tests (NISHIYAMA et al., 1996) carried out on senescence accelerated mice showed a similarly memory enhancing effect which demosntrates a potential usefulness in cases of age related memory deterioration.


References:

IP, S.P., et al., 1996: Effect of a lignan-enriched extract of Schisandra chinensis on aflatoxin B1 and cadmium chloride-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 1996, 413-416 (1996)
KEYS, J.D., 1976: Chinese Herbs; C.E. Tuttle, Rutland (VT) and Tokyo, 1976
LU, H., & LIU, G.T., 1992: Anti-oxidant activity of dibenzocyclooctene lignans isolated from Schisandraceae. Planta Med. 58: 311-313 (1992)
LIU, G., 1989: Pharmacological actions and clinical use of Fructus schizandrae. Chinese Medical Journal, 102:740-749 (1989) (zitiert viele nurauf chinesisch vorliegende Arbeiten)
NISHIYAMA, N., et al., 1995: Beneficial effects of S-113m, a novel herbal prescription, on learning impairment model in mice. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 18: 1498-1503 (1995)
NISHIYAMA, N., et al., 1996: An herbal prescription, S-113m, consisting of biota, ginseng and schizandra, improves learning performance in senescence accelerated mouse. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 19: 388-393 (1996)
OHTAKI, Y., et al., 1996: Deoxycholic acid as an endogenous risk factor for hepatocarcinogenesis and effects of gomisin A, a lignan component of Schisandra fruits. Anticancer Res. 16: 751-755 (1996)
SUN, H.D., et al., 1996: Nigranoic acid, a triterpenoid from Schisandra sphaerandra that inhibits HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. J. Nat. Prod. 59: 525-527 (1996)
TANG, W., & EISENBRAND, G., 1992: Chinese Drugs of Plant Origin. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1992

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