Antitussive, expectorant and anti-inflammatory alkaloids from Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosae

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the antitussive, expectorant and anti-inflammatory effects of alkaloids imperialine (I), chuanbeinone (II), verticinone (III), and verticine (IV), which were isolated from the Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosae (BFC) using phytochemical method. The results showed that all the alkaloids significantly inhibited cough frequency and increased latent period of cough in mice induced by ammonia. Besides, imperialine(I), verticinone(III) and verticine(IV) markedly enhanced mice's tracheal phenol red output in expectorant evaluation, and imperialine(I), chuanbeinone(II) significantly inhibited the development of ear edema in a dose-dependent manner in anti-inflammatory assessment. Moreover, important differences were found among the structure-activity relationships for the four alkaloids. These results confirmed that the four alkaloids imperialine, chuanbeinone, verticinone and verticine may be the active ingredients of the Bulbus F. Cirrhosae (BFC). (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.