Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

Phytochemical, toxicological and pharmacological studies of Asiasari Radix et Rhizoma: A Review

Mahesh Ramalingam, Sung-Jin Kim

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Metabolic Diseases Research Laboratory, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea;

For correspondence:- Sung-Jin Kim Email: kimsj@khu.ac.kr Tel:+8229610868

Received: 14 June 2014 Accepted: 23 January 2015 Published: 31 March 2015

Citation: Ramalingam M, Kim S. Phytochemical, toxicological and pharmacological studies of Asiasari Radix et Rhizoma: A Review. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(3):545-554 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i3.26

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Herba Asari and Asiasari Radix (AR) have a centuries-old history as a folk medicine in China, Korea and Japan. AR has long been used in combination with other herbs to treat cough, toothache, headache, neuralgia, aphthous stomatitis, gingivitis, chronic bronchitis, asthma and allergies. AR from three species of the genus Asarum: A. heterotropoides Fr. Schmidt var. mandshuricum (Maxim.) Kitag., A. sieboldii Miq. var. seoulense Nakai and A. sieboldii Miq are recognized as original “Asiasari Radix et Rhizoma”. These species do not contain aristolochic acids (nephrotoxins present in the Asarum species) and therefore the roots of AR are recommended for use. Asiasari Radix is rich in volatile oils, phenylpropanoids, terpenoids, flavonoids, glycosides and lignins. The reported toxicological and pharmacological activities of AR, including antifungal, antimicrobial, antilisterial, antiallergic, acarcidal, larvicidal, anti-caries, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, cytotoxic and anticancer activities suggest its therapeutic potentials in drug discovery.

Keywords: Asarum; Asiasarum, Asiasarum heterotropoides var. mandshuricum, Asiasarum sieboldii Herba Asari, Folk medicine, Pharmacological, Toxicological