Vinegar-processed Curcuma phaeocaulis promotes anti-angiogenic activity and reduces toxicity in zebrafish and rat models

Abstract

Context

Processing with vinegar could enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of Curcuma phaeocaulis Valeton. (Zingiberaceae), a Chinese herbal medicine with anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities.

Objective

This study investigated the vinegar processing effects by evaluating anti-angiogenic effect and toxicity of C. phaeocaulis through zebrafish and rat models.

Materials and methods

Zebrafish embryos (AB and FLk-GFP strain) were applied to evaluate toxicity, cardiotoxicity and anti-angiogenic activity of volatile oil, and water decoction of the raw and vinegar-processed C. phaeocaulis. Meanwhile, a blood stasis syndrome rat model was applied to study the toxicity by measuring the ovarian and uterine coefficient.

Results

Curcuma phaeocaulis volatile oil and its vinegar-processed products in zebrafish had an LC₅₀ of 67.315 and 95.755 μg/mL, respectively. Curcuma phaeocaulis water decoction and its vinegar-processed products had an LC₅₀ of 161.440 and 206.239 μg/mL, respectively. The toxicity of vinegar-processed products was significantly lower than the raw, and the development characteristic of zebrafish embryos at different times confirmed these results. The volatile oil of vinegar-processed products could inhibit the growth of intersegmental blood vessels at the dose of 20 μg/mL, while the raw materials did not exhibit such effect at the same concentration. The rat experiment also confirmed that the volatile oil could reduce toxicity of ovarian and uterine.

Discussion and conclusions

The study indicated that processing using vinegar could decrease toxicity and increase anti-angiogenic activity of C. phaeocaulis, which could be applied for clinical treatment. Further in-depth study on the synergism and detoxification mechanism of vinegar processing technology is needed.

Keywords:

• Volatile oil
• LC₅₀ values
• intersegmental blood vessels
• ovarian coefficient
• uterine coefficient
• cardiotoxicity
• Ezhu

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 81403103, Grant No. 82073994]; the International Cooperation Project of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province [Grant No. 2018HH0122]; and Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau International Science and Technology Cooperation Project [Grant No. 2017-GH02-00054-HZ]; Development Special of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Sichuan Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration [2018KF001]; the Outstanding Young Scientific and Technological Talents Project of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province [Grant No. 2020JDJQ0049]; the Key Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Coarse Grain Processing, Ministry of Agriculture [Grant No. 2019CC02]; the Xinglin Scholars Research Enhancement Program [Grant No. XSGG2019005, Grant No. QNXZ2018026]; Science and Technology Transformation Project of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine [Grant No.030036005].