Brazilin from Caesalpinia sappan heartwood and its pharmacological activities: A review

Abstract

Caesalpinia sappan L. (CS) is a plant of Leguminosae family, commonly known as Brazil or Sappan wood. CS is distributed in Southeast Asia and its dried heartwood has been used as traditional ingredient of food or beverages and has a wide variety of medicinal properties. Higher extraction yield of CS wood was achieved with 95% ethanol for 2 h. Chemical constituent's investigation of sappan wood resulted in the isolation of various structural types of phenolic components including one xanthone, one coumarin, three chalcones, two flavones three homoisoflavonoids and brazilin. Brazilin [(6a S-cis)-7, 11b-dihydrobenz[b]indeno[1,2-d]pyran-3,6a,9,10(6H)- tetrol], a major and active compound found in CS heartwood. Most of the folkloric uses of brazilin were validated by the scientific studies such as antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-photoaging, hypoglycemic, vasorelaxant, hepatoprotective and anti-acne activity. CS heartwood extract is safe and did not produce any acute or subacute toxicity in both male and female rats. Brazilin is the safe natural compound having potential to develop as a medicinal compound with application in food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries to screen its clinical use in modern medicine. The information gained could provide the important and potential approach for pharmaceutical researcher to implicate the knowledge of brazilin in the formulation of new drug and to reveal therapeutic and gaps requiring future research opportunities. More studies are needed to evaluate the potential application of brazilin as preservative and coloring agent in food processing industries.

The Analysis Of Consumer Preferences On Mulberry Leaves Tea As An Antioxidant-Enriched Product

“…The average polyphenol content increases with the increasing percentage of wood addition sappan. Sappan wood contains water-soluble flavonoid compounds such as Brazilian, protosappanin, and hematoxylin (Nirmal, et al, 2015). The addition of wood sappan on mulberry leaves ready to drink tea which is boiled in hot water can extract the flavonoids contained in wood sappan.…”

“…Based on the previous study, the older the logs of sappan wood, the higher antioxidant activity (Hidayat & Napitupulu, 2015). Nirmal, et al (2015) states that sappan wood contains water-soluble flavonoid compounds, namely brazilin, protosappanin, and hematoxylin. Brazilin is the main phytochemical compound found in sappan wood and is responsible for most of the sappan wood pharmacology activities.…”

“…Sappan wood is one of the natural red dye. The red color that comes out the sappan wood comes from brazilin, one of the flavonoid compounds (Nirmal et al, 2015). In addition to the dye, the addition of sappan wood is also conducted in order to increase the content of antioxidants in mulberry leaf tea drinks.…”

Effect of Sappan Wood Ethanol Extracts (Caesalpinia sappan. L) to the Sperm Motility, Viability, and Concentration of Male Wistar Rats

“…Brazilin, the main compound in the Sappan wood, has a variety of biological effects among them as antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-hepatotoxity, and antiplatelet activity. 6,10 As an antioxidant, brazilin may have an effect on spermatogenesis. Brazilin inhibits the production of nitrite oxide (NO) which acts as a mediator in the inflammatory reaction.…”

“…The structure of hydroxyl chain in brazilin contains phenolic compound that inhibit free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. 6 Regulation of ROS plays an important part in normal spermatogenesis and sperm production. 7 Therefore, sappan wood may affect in improving sperm quality.…”