Anti-lipid accumulation effects and mechanism of the extract and isolated compounds from Potentilla longifolia.

Potentilla longifolia is effective in the treatment of hepatitis as a Chinese herb. We firstly evaluated the effect of water extract of P. longifolia (WEPL) on mice with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) induced by high-fat (HF) diet. The results showed that WEPL reduced HF-induced increases of the serum ALT, AST, TG and TC, and reduced lipid drops of liver tissues to a different extent compared with HF group; WEPL dose-dependently promoted the phosphorylation degrees of AMPK and ACC; WEPL decreased significantly genes expressions of SREBP1α, FAS and SCD1 and increased PPARα and CD36. Then three new (1-3) and 13 known compounds (4-16) were firstly-isolated from the 95% ethanol extract of this plant. Further experiments showed that a new compound (ganyearmcaooside C) showed the best inhibitory effect on lipid accumulation in 3 T3-L1 cells such as reducing the accumulation of oil droplets and triglyceride level, showing new drug potential for related diseases.