Long-term feeding of adenine to rats produced metabolic abnormalities resembling chronic renal failure in humans. Among the disturbances produced were azotemia, accumulation of uremic toxins, metabolic imbalances of amino acids and electrolytes, and hormonal imbalances. The pathological findings in the kidneys of these experimental rats revealed lesions of proximal tubules, of some distal tubules and of glomeruli. Contracted kidneys were found in the rats with severe perturbations. Our results suggest that long-term adenine feeding provides a model which would be useful to study chronic renal failure.

Vanillin and sulfuric acid used in a colorimetric assay of ginsenosides (saponins in the root of Panax ginseng C. A. MEYER) were directly applied to several sapogenins (Tables I1 and Ill), and their glycosides, and related compounds (Table I) without any modifications of the reaction conditions. Steroidal sapogenins with or without double bond at C-5, triterpenoid sapogenins, sterols and bile acids which have an OH group at their C-3 position, gave chromogens with the reagents. Cholanic acid (no OH group) and corticosteroids (A4-3-keto and 20,21-ketol) did not give the typical red-purple color after the treatment with the reagents. When a C-3-OH group of a sapogenin was free, bound with sugar, or esterified with acetic acid, its sapogenin moiety showed almost identical absorption propkrties after the color reaction. Every spirostane sapogenin tested gave two visible absorption maxima, one of them located around the 455 to 460 n m region. Spirostane-2, 3-diol and spirostane-l,2,3-trio1 showed atypical absorption spectra. Triterpenoid sapogenins with the C-23-OH group had an additional peak located around the 460 to 485 n m region. An OH group and a carbon-carbon double bond in rings B, C and D also seemed to affect the absorption properties due to C-3-OH in some cases. The colorimetric determination rriethod for saponins, especially triterpenoid saponins, as a simple, rapid and reasonably precise method, has been in demand for evaluation of saponin drugs and their preparations. There are many color reactions for detection of steroidal sapogenins, but few for triterpenoid sapogenins and saponins in general [I]. As for quantitative determinations by chrornogenic reaction, perchloric acid for diosgenin [Z], aromatic aldehydes-phosphoric acid for several steroidal sapogenins [3], antimony trichloride-HC1 for sapogenins in Dioscorea tubers [4], vanillin-sulfuric acid for glycyrrhetinic acid [5] aqd for senegin and sapoalbin [ 6 ] , cobaltous chloride-sulfuric acid [7] and ferric chloridesulfuric acid [8] for escin have been reported, so far as we know. These reagents are not specific for sapogenin; and can react with sterols, bile acids, steroids and terpenes which are not easily separated from sapogenins [I and 91. So we have to separate sapogenins as saponins from those compounds and then to hydrolyse the saponins.

Blood glucose and total lipid levels in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes were determined after intraperitoneal administration of a methanolic extract of Prunus davidiana Fr. stems and its main component, prunin (= naringenin 7-O-beta-D-glucoside). From the data obtained it was concluded that intraperitoneal administration of the methanolic extract and prunin produced a significant hypoglycemic effect. Total blood lipids were also decreased by these substances. Thus, it is suggested that this methanolic extract contains one or more hypoglycemic principles including the main flavanone glycoside, prunin, which can significantly reduce the levels of blood glucose and total lipids in streptozotocin-diabetic rats.

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