Antiallergic activities of rabdosiin and its related compounds: chemical and biochemical evaluations

We examined the effects of caffeic acid-containing compounds such as chlorogenic acid, rosmarinic acid and rabdosiin on anti-allergic activities involving active oxygens scavenging activity as well as inhibitory activities of hyaluronidase and beta-hexosaminidase release. Rabdosiin exhibited the highest hyaluronidase-inhibitory activity and scavenging activities against active oxygens species such as superoxide anion radicals and hydroxyl radicals among the tested compounds. Both rabdosiin and caffeic acid inhibited beta-hexosaminidase release from cultured cells more than 90% at 2 mM. The inhibition by rosmarinic acid and chlorogenic acid were weaker than that of rabdosiin. From these results, rabdosiin has been proposed to possess anti-allergic activity.