Paeoniflorin Explained

Paeoniflorin is a chemical compound which is one of the major constituents of an herbal medicine derived from Paeonia lactiflora.^[1] It can also be isolated from the fresh water fern Salvinia molesta.^[2]

In Paeonia, it can form new compounds with addition of phenolic substituents.^[3] In a study in female rats, paeoniflorin was found to inhibit the production of testosterone within the ovaries, however does not significantly affect the production of Estradiol.^[4] In mice, paeoniflorin was shown to protect against neuroinflammation and depression-like behavior induced by IFN alpha.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Yan . D. . Saito . K. . Ohmi . Y. . Fujie . N. . Ohtsuka . K. . Paeoniflorin, a novel heat shock protein–inducing compound . 10.1379/CSC-51R.1 . Cell Stress & Chaperones . 9 . 4 . 378–89 . 2004 . 15633296. 1065277.
2. Choudhary . M. I. . Naheed . N. . Abbaskhan . A. . Musharraf . S. G. . Siddiqui . H. . Atta-Ur-Rahman . 10.1016/j.phytochem.2007.10.028 . Phenolic and other constituents of fresh water fern Salvinia molesta . Phytochemistry . 69 . 4 . 1018–1023 . 2008 . 18177906. 2008PChem..69.1018C .
3. Tanaka . T. . Kataoka . M. . Tsuboi . N. . Kouno . I. . New monoterpene glycoside esters and phenolic constituents of Paeoniae radix, and increase of water solubility of proanthocyanidins in the presence of paeoniflorin . Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin . 48 . 2 . 201–207 . 2000 . 10705504 . 10.1248/cpb.48.201. free .
4. 10.1142/S0192415X91000119. 1897494. Effect of Paeoniflorin, Glycyrrhizin and Glycyrrhetic acid on Ovarian Androgen Production. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 19. 1. 73–8. 1991. Takeuchi. Toru. Nishii. Osamu. Okamura. Takashi. Yaginuma. Tsutomu.
5. Paeoniflorin ameliorates interferon-alpha-induced neuroinflammation and depressive-like behaviors in mice.