The flowers of Buddleja officinalis MAXIM. (Buddlejaceae) are used in traditional medicine in several parts of the world where it is indigenous. In folk medicine remedies, it is used for the treatment of stroke, headache, neurological disorders, conjunctival congestion, clustered nebulae, removal of heat, replenishment of the liver, and clearing the corneal opacity.1-3) Besides its uses in traditional medicine, the B. officinalis plant has also been cultured and its flowers used as a yellow natural food colorant. 1,4) Phytochemical studies of the flower have yielded isolation of flavonoids, 5) saponins, 6) and several phenylethanoid glycosides.
7)Pharmacognosy and usage of B. officinalis in traditional recipes have been widely reported by Chinese and Korean scientists. Flavonoids from the flowers have shown weakly antioxidative and antifungal activities.5) The aqueous extract of B. officinalis inhibits highly glucose-induced matrix metalloproteinase activity.3) However, the antioxidant activities of constituents from the flower have been not extensively studied.5) As part of our investigations of bioactive compounds from Vietnamese medicinal plants, the flowers of B. officinalis were found to possess high antioxidant activity using the total oxidant scavenging capacity (TOSC) assay. The TOSC assay developed by the Winston and collaborators is a method for evaluating antioxidant activity based on the inhibition of oxy-radical-induced production of ethylene gas from a-keto-g-methiolbutyric acid (KMBA). 8,9) The advantages of this method are that it is simple, rapid, and applicable for either biological tissues as well as pure antioxidants. Furthermore, unlike 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, this assay can evaluate antioxidant capacity against physiological oxidants including peroxynitrite.In this paper, the isolation of nine compounds, including six phenylethanoid glycosides (1-6) and three flavones (7-9) from EtOAc and n-BuOH extracts of the flowers of B. officinalis are reported. Of these, bioside (2) was isolated for the first time from the Buddleja genus. Antioxidant activities against peroxynitrite were then evaluated using TOSC assay.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
General Experimental ProceduresThe nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H-NMR, 400 MHz and 13 C-NMR, 100 MHz) spectra were recorded on a Bruker DRX-NMR spectrometer (Germany) using Bruker's standard pulse program. Chemical shifts were reported in ppm downfield from tetramethylsilan (TMS), with J in Hz. The electronspray ionization (ESI) mass spectra were recorded on an AGILENT 1100 LC-MSD trap spectrometer. Silica gel (70-230, 230-400 mesh, Merck), YMC RP-18 resins (30-50 mm, Fuji Silysia Chemical Ltd.) were used as absorbents in the column chromatography. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates (Silica gel 60 F 254 and RP-18 F 254 , 0.25 mm, Merck) were purchased from Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany). Spots were detected under UV radiation (254, 365 nm) and by spraying the plates with 10% H 2 SO 4 followed by heating with a heat gun. Chemistry, VAST...