Pedicularis contorta
Marble Mts. Wilderness,
Lake of the Island, CA
July 2006

Pedicularis bracteosa
Marble Mts. Wilderness,
Lake of the Island, CA
July 2006

Pedicularis bracteosa
Southeastern ID
July 2005
 

Pedicularis densiflora
Tehama Co., CA
SPJ-16223, Mar 2008

Pedicularis racemosa

Rocky Mts. —Continental Divide. Wyoming. Carbon Co.: Medicine Bow Natl. Forest near CO state line, along Hwy 70, Battle Pass; 41º09'11.7", 106º58’51.8”, 3044 m.  Spruce-fir forest with Vaccinium understory. SPJ-16414, 05 Aug 2008

Mu P., X. Gao, Z. J. Jia and R. L. Zheng. 2008. Natural antioxidant pedicularioside G inhibits angiogenesis and tumourigenesis in vitro and in vivo. Basic Clin. Pharmacol. Toxicol.102(1): 30–34. “Pedicularioside G is a new compound of phenylpropanoid glycosides, isolated from Pedicularis striata in our laboratory. Pedicularioside G inhibited two major angiogenic responses, human umbilical vein endothelial cell proliferation and migration, as well as neovascularization in a chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane model. In addition, pedicularioside G inhibited human hepatoma cells proliferation and migration in vitro along with transplanting tumour formation and growth in a chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane model. So pedicularioside G has anti-angiogenic, antitumour growth, antimetastatic and antitumoural effects. Pedicularioside G also remarkably reduced reactive oxygen species level in both vein endothelial cells and hepatoma cells in a concentration-dependent manner. These results suggest that the anti-angiogenic and antitumoural effects of pedicularioside G might partially attribute to its antioxidative activity.”

Rui-Chuan C., S. Jin-Hua, O. Gao-Liang, C. Ke-Xia, L. Jin-Quan and X. Xiao-Guang.  2002. Induction of differentiation in human hepatocarcinoma cells by isoverbascoside. Planta Med. 68(4): 370–372. “Isoverbascoside, a phenylethanoid glycoside, was isolated from Chinese folk medicine herb Pedicularis striata Pall. Here we report that isoverbascoside is capable of inducing differentiation in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line SMMC-7721. When treated with isoverbascoside, the proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells was markedly inhibited in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and the average cell population doubling time was delayed. Exposure of cells to 20 micromol/l isoverbascoside led to the decline of colony formation efficiency on soft agar, induced G0/G1 arresting, and resulted in the decrease of gamma-glutamyltransferase (gamma-GT) activity and the increase of tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) activity, two marker enzymes, respectively, representing HCC malignance and differentiation stage. These results suggest that isoverbascoside possess the activity of inducing differentiation in SMMC-7721 cells.”

Yuan CS, Sun XB, Zhao PH, Cao MA. 2007. Antibacterial constituents from Pedicularis armata. J Asian Nat Prod Res. 9(7): 673–677.  “A new neolignan glycoside named armaoside (1), together with six known compounds (2-7), have been isolated from the whole plant of Pedicularis armata Maxim. The structure of 1 was elucidated as erythro-(7S,8R)-1-(4-O-beta-d-glucopyranosyl-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-[3,5-dimethoxyl-4-oxo-cinnamic aldehyde]propane-1, 3-diol by spectroscopic and chemical methods. All compounds were assayed against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus.”

Zhang F, Jia Z, Deng Z, Wei Y, Zheng R, Yu L.  2002. In vitro modulation of telomerase activity, telomere length and cell cycle in MKN45 cells by verbascoside. Planta Med. 68(2):115–118. “Screening of natural products with anti-tumor activity as telomerase inhibitor is a new subject in the field of tumor therapy. Using telomerase PCR ELISA, telomere DNA hybridization and flow cytometry analysis, the effects of verbascoside, a phenylpropanoid glucoside extracted from Pedicularis striata Pall, on telomerase activity, telomere length and cell cycle of human gastric carcinoma cells MKN45 was examined in vitro. After being treated with a 50 % inhibition concentration of verbascoside (17.8 microg/ml), telomerase activity in the cells was significantly inhibited but not in the cellular supernatant, the average telomere length became remarkably short, and the sub-G0 /G1 peak and G2/M arrest were also displayed when compared to the control cells. These results suggest that verbascoside mediated-cell differentiation and apoptosis may be affected by telomere-telomerase-cell cycle dependent modulation. Thus, the antitumor mechanism of verbascoside is demonstrated once more by its inhibiting effect on telomerase activity in tumor cells, and the telomerase assay may provide a valuable screening method for antitumor activity of natural products.

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