Flavonoids isolated from Alcea rosea flowers and their biological activities

What is it about?

six flavonoids were isolated from Alcea rosea and four of them were isolated in relatively large amount (Major Compounds). So these four flavonoids were tested for their immunostimulat, antioxidant and anticancer activity in-vitro against a human liver cancer cell line HepG-2. One compound (called Tiliroside) was found to have a strong anticancer activity against this specific hepatic cancer cell line. Another compound (called Astragalin) was found to have immune stimulant activity. While the other 2 compounds (Dihydrokaempferol and Dihydrokaempferol-4′-O-β-d-glucopyranoside) were found to have antioxidant activities.

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Why is it important?

Alcea rosea is a widely used plant in traditional Chinese medicine and it was reported to have many biological activities. Besides the plant is very widely distributed all around the world as an ornamental plant. Our findings show that The compounds isolated from this plant were major compounds, which means that they could be isolated in large amounts from the plant and their structures are not complicated. These can be good candidate drugs or even lead compounds that with some structural alterations could produce more effective and potent anticancer and immune stimulant drugs.