Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
POLYGONUM CUSPIDATUM
SICBOLD & ZUCC.
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Polygonales
Family: Polygonaceae
Common name: Japanese knotweed
Distribution: Japan, China, Korea, North America, Europe
Habitat: Along streams and rivers
Description: It is a perennial species with spreading rhizomes and many red-
dish brown, freely branched stems. This shrub may grow to a maximum
height of 2.5 m. Leaves (15 cm long) are ovate and petiolated. Whitish
dioecious lowers are produced in erect racemes of 15 cm long.
Compounds and activities: Four anthroquinones, viz., physcion, emodin,
citreorosein, and anthraglycoside B, and two stilbenes, viz., resveratrol and
piceid, were isolated from the root extracts of this species. Resveratrol iso-
lated from the root of this species, at doses 2.5 and 10 mg/kg, signiicantly
reduced the tumor volume (42%), tumor weight (44%), and metastasis to the
lung (56%) in mice bearing highly metastatic Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC)
tumors (Kimura and Okuda, 2001). Further, this compound inhibited DNA
synthesis signiicantly in LLC cells, and its inhibitory concentration (IC
50
)
was 6.8 µmol/L. Furthermore, this compound at 100 µmol/L increased
apoptosis to 20.6 ± 1.35% from 12.1 ± 0.36% (
p
< 0.05) in LLC cells.
Resveratrol inhibited tumor-induced neovascularization at doses of 2.5
and 10 mg/kg in an
in vivo
model (Kimura and Okuda, 2001). Compounds
physcion, emodin, citreorosein, and anthraglycoside B showed moderate to
strong inhibition of tyrosinase, and they may be useful as skin-whitening
agents to inhibit tyrosinase for dermal use (Leu et al.,
2008). Further, cer-
tain compounds isolated from this species have also been reported to pos-
sess anti-HIV properties (Lin et al., 2010).
