Phytother Res. 2002 Sep; 16(6): 562-6.

Bioactive phenolic derivatives from Acaena splendens methanol extract.

Backhouse N, Delporte C, Negrete R, Feliciano SA, LÃ³pez-PÃ©rez JL.

Pharmacognosy Laboratory, Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Chile, P.O. Box 233, Santiago 1, Chile.

Acaena splendens H. et A. has been used in Chilean folk medicine for the treatment of fever and inflammation. A description of the in vivo reduction of bacterial pyrogen-induced fever in rabbits and carrageenan-induced paw oedema in guinea pigs is presented. The methanol extract named ME-1, obtained after succesive extractions with petroleum ether and dichloromethane, showed a strong antipyretic action (45.7% of effect), though the antiinflammatory activity was only observed after submitting this extract to column fractionation, giving a crude mixture of flavonoids named C4 with both activities (55.7% and 98.9% of antiinflammatory and antipyretic effect respectively at a dose of 600 mg/kg). The bioassay-guided fractionation by column chromatography afforded the active fraction, which contained (-,-)-epicatechin, tiliroside, 7-O-acetyl-3-O-beta-D-glucosyl-kaempferol and 7-beta-D-glucosyloxy-5-hydroxy-chromone.Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.