Tyrosinase Inhibitory and Antioxidant Activities of Paeonia lactiflora Pall. Flowers

What is it about?

Here we report the isolation and structural elucidation of 26 chemical constituents from the ethanol extract of P. lactiflora flowers. Antioxidant activities of the isolated compounds were determined by using DPPH scavenging radical assay and their tyrosinase inhibitory effects were evaluated according to in vitro fungal tyrosinase assay.

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Why is it important?

In summary, 26 known compounds were isolated from the flowers of Paeonia lactiflora. A simple, accurate, and reliable method was developed to evaluate the quality of P. lactiflora extracts by using the established HPLC fingerprint and the determination of sixteen compounds. This method might find its applicability to the determination of regional variation of the active compounds and to a cultivation management for P. lactiflora. The antioxidant assays revealed that 70% EtOH extract and EtOAc phase had significant antioxidant abilities in DPPH scavenging activity. The most active compound was identified as methyl gallate (7). Through the in vitro fungal tyrosinase inhibition screening, we found, that 70% EtOH, EtOAc, and H2O extracts and compounds 15, 16 and 17 inhibit the target protein activities with good IC50 values. It is interesting that the tetra- and penta-galloylglucoses (15 and 16) and the flavonoid 17 have bi-functionality, not just have antioxidative abilities, but also had the inhibitory effects on fungal tyrosinase. These constituents from P. lactiflora exhibited potential applications in medical cosmetology and food supplementation, simultaneously.