Puerarin

DescriptionPuerarin, also known as pueraria flavonoids, is a kind of flavonoid glycoside extracted from the roots of Pueraria alba or Pueraria thomsonii and is also one of the main effective ingredients of Pueraria lobata. That Pueraria lobate was used to treat diseases has already been recorded in China’s ancient medical books such as Shen Nong’s Materia Medica, Treatise on Miscellaneous Diseases and Medical Dictionary. Kanzu root is widely distributed in our country and of rich resources. It has been reported that puerarin could be extracted from Pueraria lobata (Wild.) Ohwi, Radix Pueraria thomsonii, Pueraria omeiensiswanget Tang, Pueraria edulis Pamp and Pueraria phaseoloides, but the content of puerarin differs. Pueraria has a great value for nutrition and medicine and was considered the south ginseng of China. Puerarin has been widespread concerned over our country for its use of food and medicine in recent years.

HistoryIn 1959, Japanese chemist Shibata Shoji first studied the chemical production of pueraria root, indicating that isoflavones are the main active ingredients of pueraria root, including puerarin, daidzin and daidzein . Then in 2003, David Lee first total synthesized analogical puerarin . And it was in 1974 that puerarin was first extracted by Fang Qicheng and other chemists in China . Due to its strong activity of anti-cardiovascular and anti-cerebrovascular ischemia and hypoxia, expanding the coronary artery and cerebrovascular, reducing myocardial oxygen consumption, and improving myocardial systolic and microcirculation function, puerarin was approved for clinical use by the Ministry of Health in 1993. In recent years, researchers have synthesized a series of puerarin derivatives, and active research showed that the part of the puerarin derivatives has a good biological activity and bioavailability. In a new dosage form research, researchers have developed several types of dosage forms such as quickrelease solid dispersions, solid from microemulsion preparation, etc., which greatly increase the solubility of puerarin, thus improving bioavailability. In recent years,the research on crystal drug has opened up new ways for the application of puerarin.