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Picrorrhiza kurroa Royle (Family: Scrophulariaceae), is a low, hairy shrub with a perennial woody rhizome and grows wild in the Himalayan mountain region of North India. Bitter extract of the rhizomes of this plant also known as ‘Kutki’ been used in traditional ayurvedic medicine for the treatment of liver diseases (1). In 1949 chemical isolation of the plant provided ‘Kutkin” as the potential active compound from the roots and rhizomes of the plant. After much chemical investigation Kutkin was identified as a mixture of two iridoid glycosides (2), Picroside-I (3) and "Kutkoside" (2). Chemical structure of Picroside-I was elucidated as 6-O-cinnamoylcatalpol (3) and "Kutkoside" was characterized as 10-O-vanilloylcatalpol (2). Later ‘Kutkin’ was developed as a potent liver protective drug under the name ‘Picroliv’(4-6). Picroliv is a mixture of iridoid glycoside fraction containing picroside-I (30%), Kutkoside (40%) and other iridoid glycosides including Picroside-II (7) which was identified as 6-O-vanilloylcatalpol.

References

<1. Rastogi RP. editor. Compendium of Indian Medicinal Plants. 1998; 5: 53-54; Rastogi, R.P., Sharma, V.N., Siddiqui, S. (1949) Chemical examination of Picrorhiza kurroa Benth -- Part 1. J. Sci. Ind. Res. 8B, 173-178. 2. Singh B, Rastogi RP. Chemical examination of Picrorrhiza kurroa Benth. Part VI. Reinvestigation of kutkin. Indian J Chem 1972;10:29–31. 3. Kitagawa I, Hino K, Nishimura T, Kukai E,Yoshioka I, Inouye H,Yoshida T. Picroside I: A bitter principle of Picrorrhiza kurroa. Tetrahedron Lett 1969;43:3837–3840. 4. Handa SS, Sharma A, Chakrabarti KK. Natural products and plants as liver protecting drugs. Fitoterapia 1986;57:503–512. 5. Aswal BS, Chandra R, Chatterjee SK, Dhawan BN, DwivediY, Garg NK, Jain P, Kapoor NK, Kulshreshtha DK, Mehrotra BN, Patnaik GK, Rastogi R, Sarin JPS, Saxena KC, Sharma SC, Shukla B, Visen PKS. Ind. Patent File No. 450/de1/90. 6. Gupta PP. Picroliv. Drugs Fut 2001;26(1):25–31. 7. Weinges K, Kloss P, Henkels WD. Natural products from medicinal plants. XVII.picroside-II, a new 6 -vanilloyl-catapol from Picrorhiza kuroa Royle and Benth. Justus Liebigs Ann Chem 1972;759:173-182. >