COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF 17 SALVIA PLANTS - ALDOSE REDUCTASE INHIBITORY ACTIVITY OF WATER AND MEOH EXTRACTS AND LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY (LC-MS) ANALYSIS OF WATER EXTRACTS

The dry root and rhizome of Salvia miltiorhiza (Lamiaceae) are used as a crude drug Danshen, while those of S. deserta (Xinjiang-Danshen) ar e mixed in Danshen at Xinjiang province when the former is in short su pply, The water and MeOH extracts of S. deserta showed strong aldose r eductase (AR) inhibitory activity, and their active constituents were determined to be polar compounds different from ''tanshinones'' of S. miltiorhiza, i.e., lithospermic acid B (1), salvianolic acid a (2), sa lviaflaside (3), and rosmarinic acid (4) (IC50, 2.63-3.91 mu M). We al so examined the AR inhibitory activity of water and MeOH extracts of s eventeen Salvia plants, including ten species of Danshen resources (S. bowleyana, S. deserta, S. miltiorhiza, S. miltiorhiza var. miltiorhiz a f. alba, S. paramiltiorhiza, S. paramiltiorhiza f. purpureo-rubra, S . przewalskii, S. przewalskii var. mandarinorum, S. sinica f. purpurea , S. trijuga), and their water extracts were also analyzed by liquid c hromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The results indicated that th ere were four types with regard to the AR inhibitory activity and thre e types with regard to the amount of I, Ten species used as Danshen re sources showed good correlation between the AR inhibitory activity and the morphological classification, However, the intensities of their A R inhibitory activity varied, and they contained 1 in varying amounts, These facts suggested that the ten species were not the same, and thu s their use as a Danshen resource should be based on their activity an d/or active constituents.