Main components of ethyl acetate extract of Chimonanthus salicifolius and its effects on intestinal mucositis in mice induced by 5-fluorouracil

Abstract

Chemotherapy is one of the most common and effective treatment methods for patients with malignant tumors. However, the long-term use of chemotherapeutic drugs often causes the serious damage to normal tissues of body (Vriesendorp et al., 1987). 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a basic drug for the treatment of rectal cancer and breast cancer (Longley et al., 2003). The clinical studies have shown that 5-FU has strong toxic and side effects, such as gastrointestinal mucositis, immune hypofunction, hematopoietic dysfunction, etc. (Takatsuki et al., 1990; Randall & Weissman, 1997; Saegusa et al., 2008; Hu et al., 2020). Studies have shown that, some substances extracted from natural plants have good pharmacological activities (Lin et al., 2019; Milagres et al., 2020). It is found that some Chinese medicinal herbs with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities can be used to treat the 5-FU induced intestinal mucositis (Wright et al., 2009; Ávila et al., 2015; Santos et al., 2015). It is found that, the water extract of Chimonanthus salicifolius, a kind of Chinese medicinal herb, can alleviate the mucositis caused by 5-FU, but the specific active site of extract is not clear (Liu et al., 2013). In addition, the previous studies have shown that, the ethyl acetate extract of Chimonanthus salicifolius (EAECS) mainly contains flavonoids and coumarins, and has better bacteriostatic effect in vitro than its chloroform extract and petroleum ether extract (Wang et al., 2012, 2016; Wen et al., 2013). In the present study, the EAECS was prepared, and its main components were preliminarily determined. In addition, the protective effects of EAECS on intestinal mucositis induced by 5-FU in mice were investigated. The objective was to provide an experimental basis for the development of EAECS related medicines for the adjuvant anti-cancer therapy.