Composition for prevention and treatment of diabetic complication

Abstract

The present invention relates to a composition for the prevention and treatment of diabetic complications, which contains an extract obtained by: crushing and drying any one selected from Euphorbiae radix, gingered Magnolia bark, parched Puerariae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix; extracting the dried herbal material with alcohol or aqueous alcohol solution: filtering the extract; and concentrating the filtrate under reduced pressure. Alternatively, the composition contains a mixture of extracts from Euphorbiae radix, gingered Magnolia bark, parched Puerariae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix, the amount of each of the herbal extracts being 5-85% by weight based on 100% by weight of the herbal extract mixture. Alternatively, the composition contains magnolol obtained by: extracting Magnolia bark with aqueous 80% ethanol solution at ambient temperature for 24 hours; systematically separating the extract in the order of normal-hexane, ethyl acetate and normal-butanol; selecting the normal-hexane layer and separating the selected layer into pre-fractions by normal silica gel chromatography; comparing the pre-fractions with the standard form magnolol on TLC to determine a magnolol-enriched fraction; and separating magnolol from the magnolol-enriched fraction by silica gel column chromatography.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a composition for the prevention and treatment of diabetic complications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition and functional food effective for inhibiting the production of advanced glycation endproducts (ACEs) to prevent and treat diabetic complications, which contains an extract from each of Euphorbiae radix, gingered Magnolia bark, parched Puerariae radix and Glycyrrhizae radix, or a mixture of extracts from these herbal materials, or magnolol isolated from Magnolia bark, thus inhibiting the production of advanced glycation endproducts (ACEs). BACKGROUND ART [0002] Diabetes is one of important adult diseases all over the world, and in Korea, it reaches a prevalence rate of 7-8% with rapid economic growth and becomes an important cause of death of people in the 60-70-year-old age group. Diabetic complication, a cause of death by diabetes, occurs by the damage of almost all organs i...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition and functional food for the prevention and treatment of diabetic complications. The invention is about a combination of herbal materials that inhibits the production of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs), which are important factors in the progression of diabetic complications and aging. The herbal materials include extracts from Euphorbiae radix, gingered Magnolia bark, parched Puerariae radix, and Glycyrrhizae radix. The invention can be used to prevent and treat diabetic complications, such as diabetic retinopathy, diabetic cataract, diabetic nephropathy, and diabetic neuropathy. The invention also provides a method for inhibiting the production of AGEs and a method for reducing the damage caused by AGEs in tissues.

Problems solved by technology

Particularly, chronic diabetic nephropathy is the most important cause of end-stage renal disease and cannot be treated by other therapies than blood dialysis therapy and organ transplantation.

Thus, even when blood glucose is recovered to a normal level, the endproducts, once produced, are accumulated in tissues during a protein existing period without degradation, resulting in an abnormal change in the structure and function of the tissues (Vinson, J. A. et al., 1996, J. Nutritinal Biochemistry 7: 559-663; Smith, P. R. et al., 1992, Eur. J. Biochem., 210: 729-739).

The excessive introduction of glycated albumins and the increase of extracellular matrices result in the fibrillation of glomerules.

By such mechanisms, the glomerules are continuously damaged, eventually making the use of an extreme treatment method, such as blood dialysis or organ transplantation, unavoidable.

As described above, the nonenzymatic protein glycation leads to the glycation of basement membranes, serum albumins, lens proteins, fibrins, collagens, etc., and the advanced glycation endproducts cause an abnormal change in the structure and function of the tissues, resulting in chronic diabetic complications, such as diabetic retinopathy, diabetic cataract, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic neuropathy, etc.

The aminoguanidine, which is the most promising synthetic drug candidate for the prevention and treatment of diabetic complication, was developed up to third-phase clinical trials but has the problem of causing toxicity upon long-term administration.

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