The dried fructus of Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cusson, “Shechuangzi” in Chinese, are traditional Chinese medicine registered in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. It is widely used in Chinese medical clinic for the treatment of asthma, cough, fungal infection, arrhythmia, and so on. However, there were a few reports concerning side-effects and toxications reported that patients felt sickness after administration of the water extract of “Shechuangzi” orally and they were also toxic to the intestines and stomach.

The supercritical fluid extract of “Shechuangzi” displayed phototoxicity to skin. It was hypothesized that there should be some substances presented in this folk medicine to cause these side-effects and toxications. Osthol, a simple coumarin enriched in the fructus of C. monnieri, for instance, was reported to inhibit central nervous system. Also xanthotoxol displayed inhibitory effects on central nervous system, cytotoxicity, and mutagenesis.


Chengdu Institute of Biology Prof.LUO Yinggang and co-workers made the chemical investigations on the ethanolic extract of the dried fructus of Cnidium monnieri offered three chromones and eight coumarins. Among them, a new chromone and a new coumarin were identified and elucidated as 5,7-dihydroxy-6-[(2Z)-4-(β-d-glucopyranosyl)oxy-3-methylbut-2-enyl]-2-hydroxymethyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (1, hydroxycnidimoside A) and (rel1′S,2′R)-8-(2,3-epoxy-1-hydroxy-3-methylbutyl)-7-methoxycoumarin (8, hydroxyosthole epoxide), respectively, by extensive analyses of spectroscopic data including 1- and 2-D NMR, MS, UV, OR, IR, and HRMS data. The other known compounds were identified by analyses of spectroscopic data and by comparison with literature reported.

This research was published in FITOTERAPIA in JUL 2011 and was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 program) .