Ursolic acid (ursolic acid), also known as ursolic acid (ursolic acid), belongs to pentacyclic triterpenoids. It is widely distributed in nature, such as in the leaves and fruits of azalea bear fruit, the leaves of Scrophulariaceae Paulownia pilosa, and the leaves of Melilotus Ligustrum lucidum. Ursolic acid has a wide range of biological activities, including anticancer, liver injury protection, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-virus effects. In recent years, it has been found that ursolic acid can not only resist a variety of carcinogens and cancer promoters, but also inhibit the growth of a variety of malignant tumor cells. It has obvious stabilizing and cooling effects on the central nervous system (CNS), can inhibit CCl4 induced liver injury, and has inhibitory activity against g+ and g- bacteria and yeast in vitro. At the same time, ursolic acid and its derivatives also have inhibitory activity against viruses. Therefore, the pharmacological activity of ursolic acid has attracted more and more attention of drug experts. It mainly has the following prominent pharmacological activities.
1、 Anticancer effect
It has been found that it has anti carcinogenic, anti carcinogenic, anti angiogenic and inducing differentiation of F9 teratoma cells; The results showed that ursolic acid could significantly inhibit the proliferation of HL-60 cells and induce their apoptosis; It can significantly improve the phagocytic function of macrophages in mice. In vivo experiments have proved that ursolic acid can significantly enhance the immune function of the body. It shows that it has a wide range of anti-tumor effects, and is likely to become a low toxicity and effective new anti-cancer drug.
2、 Antioxidation
Ursolic acid is a strong antioxidant. It can obviously capture o2-, and has a strong inhibitory effect on lipid peroxidation in liver microsomes and P450 monoamine oxidase system. In addition, it has been proved that ursolic acid has a strong inhibitory effect on the activity of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). In addition, ursolic acid has obvious biological effects such as anti radiation, sedation, anti ulcer, anti atherosclerosis, stability, cooling, hypnosis with pentobarbital, etc
3、 Protective effect of liver injury
It was found that ursolic acid had a protective effect on the changes of antioxidant enzymes induced by CCl4. Ursolic acid could significantly reduce the increase of serum alanine (ALT) and aspartic acid (AST) induced by CCl4 in mice. Ursolic acid can also reverse the activities of peroxidase dismutase, catalase, glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase, and maintain the level of glutathione in vivo.
4、 Anti hyperlipidemia and hypoglycemic effect
The effects of ursolic acid on cardiovascular function, anti hyperlipidemia, diuretic and hypoglycemic activities, and antioxidation were studied. The results showed that ursolic acid did not have the effect of directly lowering blood pressure, but it could prevent the progression of severe hypertension after 6 weeks of application, which benefited from its effective diuretic effect, direct cardiac effect, anti hyperlipidemia and hypoglycemic effect.
Ursolic acidIt is widely distributed in nature and rich in resources. It has a variety of pharmacological activities, such as anti-tumor, anti liver injury, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-virus. Ursolic acid has broad prospects for pharmaceutical development, has been valued by many research institutions, and is expected to become a multi-purpose new drug with high efficiency and low toxicity.