3-oxododecanal

BeschreibungHouttuynin is one of the main ingredients in the volatile oil derived from jicai (Houttuynia cordata Thunb), which belongs to the family Saururaceae, and is also named as yuxingcao because of its fishlike smells when grated. H. cordata has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicines and is recorded in Grand Compendium of Materia Medica. H. cordata is used in the treatment of skin diseases, hemorrhoids, and certain diseases of women, relieving fever, resolving toxicity, reducing swelling, draining pus, and promoting urination. H. cordata is available in China and India.

HistoryIn 1952, houttuynin was firstly found in the volatile oil extracted from Houttuynia by steam distillation. The chemical structure was named decanoyl acetaldehyde. However, houttuynin is easy to polymerize and became invalid. In 1971, Chinese scholars synthesized sodium houttuyfonate (houttuyninum, HOU), which is an addition compound of sodium bisulfite and houttuynin. HOU is more stable and maintains the original antibacterial activity. HOU possessed broad-spectrum antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities, diuretic swelling, rapid antifebrile, antivirus and antitumor proliferation, increased immunity, and other pharmacological effects.Neo-houttuyninum as the other derivative of houttuynin possesses more obvious inhibitory effect on a variety of bacteria and is used for the treatment of infectious diseases.Since houttuynin was found 60 years ago, Houttuynia injection preparations have been developed, such as Houttuynia injection, neo-houttuyfonate sodium chloride injection, neo-houttuyfonate injection, etc. These drugs are commonly used in clinical antimicrobial drugs. However, these injection preparations were withdrawed for serious adverse reactions in 2006, and continued to be used in clinic since 2008.