Sophora flavescens explained

Sophora flavescens, the shrubby sophora, is a species of plant in the genus Sophora of the family Fabaceae. This genus contains about 52 species.^[1] It mainly occurs in India, Japan, Korea and Russia.

Description

Sophora flavescens can grow to a height of 2 m. Its stem is marked with stripes and covered in soft hairs when young. The leaves are usually 20-25 cm long, with lanceolate stipules and 13-25 elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate leaflets. The plant produces terminal racemes measuring 15-25 cm, with numerous flowers spaced widely apart. The flowers have slender pedicels and linear bracts with white, pale yellow, purple-red, or red spoon-shaped petals. It blooms from June to August and fruits from July to October.^[2]

Distribution

Sophora flavescens is native to China and can be found in all provinces in China. It can be also found in India, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. It mainly grows on mountainous slopes, sandy grassland inclines, shrub forests, or around the fields, typically at elevations below 1500 meters.^[3]

Growth and cultivation

Sophora flavescens is an evergreen slow growing shrub growing to 1.5m (04.9feet) by 1m (03feet). It is hardy to 0F10F and to US zone 6. The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist soil. Like many other species in the family Fabaceae, this species can fix nitrogen.

Chemistry

Chemical compounds isolated from S. flavescens include:

• Matrine and matrine oxide, quinolizidine alkaloids found in the roots
• Kushenin, a pterocarpan and isoflavonoid^[4]
• Sophoraflavanone G^[5]
• 7,9,2',4'-Tetrahydroxy-8-isopentenyl-5-methoxychalcone^[6]
• Sophoridine
• Kurarinone^[7]
• Trifolirhizin, a pterocarpan flavonoid, isolated from the roots
• 8-Prenylkaempferol, a prenylflavonoid
• Oxysophocarpine and sophocarpine, alkaloids^[8]

Toxicity

Toxic effects from use of the root may include nausea, dizziness, vomiting, constipation, spasms, disturbance of speech, irregular breathing, respiratory failure and death.^[9]

External links

• Sophora flavescens Ait.
• Ya Ling . Jian . Ying Zhang . Guo . Jie Cui . Zhao . Kai Zhang . Chang . 2007 . Supercritical fluid extraction of quinolizidine alkaloids from Sophora flavescens Ait. and purification by high-speed counter-current chromatography . Journal of Chromatography A . 1145 . 1–2 . 123–127 . 10.1016/j.chroma.2007.01.080. 17289059 .

Notes and References

1. 10.1590/S0102-695X2012005000043. A review on phytochemical, ethnomedical and pharmacological studies on genus Sophora, Fabaceae. Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia. 22. 5. 1145–1154. 2012. Krishna. Panthati Murali. Knv. Rao. S. Sandhya. Banji. David. free.
2. Web site: Sophora flavescens in Flora of China . 2024-05-06 . www.efloras.org.
3. Book: 中国植物志 . 1994 . 40 . 81-83 . zh . Flora of China . https://web.archive.org/web/20240506154920/https://www.iplant.cn/frps/pdf/40/081b.pdf . 2024-05-06.
4. Schwarte A 2002 Phytochemische und pharmakologische Untersuchungen der Wurzeln von Sophora flavescens,unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer Wirkung auf die Leukotrien- und Prostaglandinbiosynthese
5. Cha . J.-D. . Moon . S.-E. . Kim . J.-Y. . Jung . E.-K. . Lee . Y.-S. . 2009 . Antibacterial activity of sophoraflavanone G isolated from the roots of Sophora flavescens against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus . Phytotherapy Research . 23 . 9. 1326–1331 . 10.1002/ptr.2540. 19288534 . 3033936 .
6. 20512474. 10.1007/s12272-010-0515-8. Prenylated chalcone from Sophora flavescens suppresses Th2 chemokine expression induced by cytokines via heme oxygenase-1 in human keratinocytes. 2010. Choi. Byung-Min. Oh. Gi-Su. Lee. Jang Won. Mok. Ji Ye. Kim. Dae Keun. Jeong. Seung-Il. Jang. Seon Il. Archives of Pharmacal Research. 33. 5. 753–760. 41527720 .
7. Tang KT, Lin CC, Lin SC, Wang JH, Tsai SW. Kurarinone Attenuates Collagen-Induced Arthritis in Mice by Inhibiting Th1/Th17 Cell Responses and Oxidative Stress. . Int J Mol Sci . 2021 . 22 . 8 . 4002 . 33924467 . 10.3390/ijms22084002 . 8069507 . free .
8. Liu . G. . Dong . J. . Wang . H. . Hashi . Y. . Chen . S. . 2011 . Characterization of alkaloids in Sophora flavescens Ait. by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry . Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis . 54. 5 . 1065–1072. 10.1016/j.jpba.2010.12.024. 21227622 .
9. Book: Bensky. Dan. Clavey. Steven. Stöger. Erich. Lai Bensky. Lilian. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica. 2015. Eastland Press. Seattle, USA. 978-0-939616-82-4. 575–578. Portable 3rd.