Studies on"Inchinko."I. : Capillarisin, a New Choleretic Substance

Herb medicine Yin-Chen-Hao-Tang ameliorates hepatic fibrosis in bile duct ligation rats

“…YCHT is an aqueous extract from 3-herbs; Artemisia capillaries Thunb (Herba Artemisiae Capillaris, Yin-Cen-Hao), Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (Fructus Gardeniae, Zhi-zi) and Rheum officinale Baill (Radix Rhei Officinalis, Da-huang) with a ratio of 4:3:1 in weight. Artemisia capillaries and Gardenia jasminoides are effective for liver diseases, and Rheum officinale is a laxative (Komiyama et al, 1976;Okuno et al, 1988;Yamamoto et al, 1996Yamamoto et al, , 2000. Among components of Artemisia capillaries, capillarisin can act as choleretic (Komiyama et al, 1976;Okuno et al, 1988) and capillene and capillin inhibit apoptosis of hepatocytes induced by TGF-␤ (Yamamoto et al, 1996).…”

“…Artemisia capillaries and Gardenia jasminoides are effective for liver diseases, and Rheum officinale is a laxative (Komiyama et al, 1976;Okuno et al, 1988;Yamamoto et al, 1996Yamamoto et al, , 2000. Among components of Artemisia capillaries, capillarisin can act as choleretic (Komiyama et al, 1976;Okuno et al, 1988) and capillene and capillin inhibit apoptosis of hepatocytes induced by TGF-␤ (Yamamoto et al, 1996). Genipin, an aglycone converted in the gut from geniposide is proven to suppress Fas-induced liver injury in mice (Yamamoto et al, 2000).…”

Inchin-ko-to prevents medium-term liver fibrosis in postoperative biliary atresia patients

“…Although long-term administration of UDCA alone can improve both clinical and biochemical parameters in postoperative BA patients, it cannot be considered to be an agent that prevents progressive liver fibrosis [3]. ICKT has long been used in northeast Asia as an anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, choleretic, and diuretic agent for the treatment of liver disorders and jaundice [4][5][6][7]. ICKT is a potent inhibitor of TGF-b1-induced apoptosis of hepatocytes and this is one possible mechanism for its therapeutic effect [8].…”

“…At this point we chose to investigate inchin-ko-to (ICKT)-an oriental herbal formulation that has been used since ancient times in northeast Asia for treating jaundice when cirrhosis is present [4][5][6][7]. It is an aqueous mixture of three herbal extracts: Artemisi capillaris spica (A. capillaris), Gardenia fructus (G. fructus) and Rhei rhizome (R. rhizome) in a ratio of 4:3:1 by weight.…”

“…A. capillaris contains the choleretic agent capillarisin as well as capillene and capillin which inhibit apoptosis of hepatocytes induced by TGF-b1. [7][8][9] G. fructus contains genipin, an aglycone converted in the gut from geniposide which has been proven to suppress Fas-induced liver injury in mice [10].…”