Abstract:

Cape Jasmine Fruit was extracted with 75% ethanol in a 27.0 kHz ultrasonic field, and the extract was defatted by extraction with petroleum ether and purified by extraction with ethyl acetate followed by water saturated n-butanol. Finally, geniposide and gardenia yellow were separated from the extract by preparative HPLC. The effects of the geniposide and gardenia yellow obtained on sleep latency period and sleep time of mice were investigated to evaluate their sedative activities. Healthy ICR mice were randomly divided into six treatment groups including geniposide-low (65 mg/kg bw), geniposide-medium (650 mg/kg bw), geniposide-high (1950 mg/kg bw), gardenia yellow-low (30 mg/kg bw), gardenia yellow-medium (300 mg/kg bw), gardenia yellow-high (900 mg/kg bw) groups and one control group (administered with distilled water). All the mice were administered by gavage for 28 days. The sleep latency periods of the gardenia yellow-low, gardenia yellow -medium and gardenia yellow-high groups were shorter than those of the control group by 18.2% (P < 0.05), 21.4% (P < 0.01) and 26.2% (P < 0.01), respectively. Meanwhile, the sleep time was also prolonged by 32.4% (P < 0.05), 48.1% (P < 0.01) and 52.4% (P < 0.01), respectively. These results demonstrate that the gardenia yellow from Cape Jasmine Fruit possesses potent sedative activity.

Key words: geniposide, gardenia yellow, sleep