Herbal medicine Semen Persicae is widely used to treat blood stasis inChinesemedicine and other oriental folk medicines. Although\nlittle is known about the effects of Semen Persicae and its active compounds on neuron differentiation, our pilot study showed that\nSemen Persicae extract promoted neurite outgrowth in rat dopaminergic PC12 cells. In the present study,we developed a bioactivityguided\nfractionation procedure for the characterization of the neurotrophic activity of Semen Persicae extract. The resultant\nfractions were assayed for neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells based on microscopic assessment. Through liquid-liquid extraction\nand reverse phase HPLC separation, a botanical glycoside amygdalin was isolated as the active compound responsible for the\nneurotrophic activity of Semen Persicae extract.Moreover, we found that amygdalin rapidly induced the activation of extracellularsignal-\nregulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2). A specific ERK1/2 inhibitor PD98059 attenuated the stimulatory effect of amygdalin on\nneurite outgrowth. Taken together, amygdalin was identified as a potent neurotrophic agent from Semen Persicae extract through\na bioactivity-guided fractional procedure. The neurotrophic activity of amygdalin may be mediated by the activation of ERK1/2\npathway.
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