Glucocorticoid-Like Activity of Escin: A New Mechanism for an Old Drug

Abstract

Saponins are a group of compounds used in clinical practice in the management of several diseases. Escin is a natural mixture of triterpene saponins which mainly consist of several isoforms, in which the α- and β-escin are predominant. β-escin is the major active compound that exerts a therapeutic effect by relieving tissue edema, promoting venous drainage, and reducing inflammation. In this review, we describe the features of its glucocorticoid-like activity that could explain its clinical effects. Using PubMed, Embase Cochrane library and reference lists for articles published until October 01, 2020, we documented that escin is likely able to exert its anti-inflammatory and anti-edematous effects through a glucocorticoid-like activity, but without the development of glucocorticoid-like adverse drug reactions.

Keywords:

• escin
• mechanism of action
• glucocorticoid-like activity
• clinical efficacy

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Project No. 81973547). The authors thank Dr. Yuan Du for his support in preparing Figure 1.

Ethics Statements

The authors confirm the table and figures are original.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.