Euscaphic acid, a new hypoglycemic natural product from Folium Eriobotryae.

Folium Eriobotryae has been used as a medicinal plant for a long time, and it is known to have many physiological actions such as anti-inflammatory, anti-tussive, expectorant and anti-diabetic. We have reported that the 70% ethanol extract of Folium Eriobotryae exerted a significant hypoglycemic effect to alloxan-diabetic mice. In this study, we isolated euscaphic acid, a natural product from Folium Eriobotryae, and investigated its hypoglycemic effect in normoglycemic and alloxan-diabetic mice. All effects had been compared with those of gliclazide. The plasma glucose levels were significantly lowered in normoglycemic mice treated with euscaphic acid compared to mice treated with 0.5% CMC-Na solution only. Moreover, the dosage of 50 mg/kg exerted a significant (P < 0.05) hypoglycemic effect in alloxan-diabetic mice after orally administration. The research proved that euscaphic acid is one of the active hypoglycemic constituents in Folium Eriobotryae, but the details of the mechanism need to be investigated further.