Potentilla freyniana

Isolated from the roots of Potentilla freyniana and one of the few constituents of this herb for which an assay across commercial batches exists. In TNF-alpha-stimulated human rheumatoid-arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes it dose-dependently suppressed proliferation and reduced IL-6 and TNF-alpha secretion by blocking NF-kappaB activation. In the isolated-triterpene screen it inhibited rheumatoid-arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes with an IC50 of 25.12 micromolar. Note that the same 2026 report's ADMET prediction flagged potential hepatotoxic and reproductive-toxicity liabilities for this compound, which remain computational rather than measured.

Recovered from the roots alongside pomolic acid and shown to inhibit rheumatoid-arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes with an IC50 of 24.63 micromolar, the strongest activity in that panel together with pomolic acid. It is a very widely distributed plant triterpene, so its presence is not diagnostic for this species.

Two previously undescribed A-ring contracted triterpenoids named after Madeng'ai, the Dong ethnic-medicine name for this root. Madengaisu B showed cytotoxicity against the BGC-823 gastric carcinoma line with an IC50 of 24.76 micromolar. These are the compounds that most clearly distinguish the chemistry of this species from that of other medicinal Potentilla drugs.

An undescribed ent-kaurane diterpenoid isolated from the roots together with the madengaisu triterpenoids. It was inactive or only weakly active in the cytotoxicity panel reported with it; it is listed here as a chemical marker rather than as an active principle.

One of the more cytotoxic triterpenes recovered from the root, inhibiting Hep-G2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells with an IC50 of 25.16 micromolar. This is an in-vitro cell-line result only.

The most cytotoxic single compound in the 2022 root isolation against Hep-G2 cells, with an IC50 of 17.66 micromolar. Its aglycone relative 2-alpha,3-beta-dihydroxyolean-13(18)-en-28-oic acid inhibited HCT-116 colorectal cells at 13.25 micromolar.

The 2021 Orbitrap survey established the flavonoid fraction as the numerically dominant class in this herb and mapped it onto PI3K-Akt, MAPK and TNF signalling in a network-pharmacology model. The work is analytical and computational: no flavonoid from this species has been isolated and tested individually.

Selected by virtual screening from the aqueous rhizome extract as the constituent with the best predicted binding to inflammatory targets, then confirmed to suppress inflammatory cytokines and MAPK/NF-kappaB/NLRP3 signalling from 5 micromolar in vivo and in vitro. Readers should note that tangeretin is far better known as a Citrus peel polymethoxyflavone, so its reported occurrence in a Rosaceae rhizome rests on a single mass-spectrometric identification and has not been confirmed by isolation.

One of the constituents of the n-butanol fraction with the strongest predicted affinity for the CDK1 and EZH2 targets in the hepatocellular-carcinoma network model, alongside luteolin, berberrubine, procyanidin B1 and adenosine. Ellagic acid and procyanidins are characteristic of Rosaceae roots generally and account for much of the astringency on which the traditional haemostatic use rests.

Usual source of first record for the drug name Di Feng Zi, under which this root is dispensed. The properties given there are slightly warm and astringent, with actions of dispersing static blood and resolving scrofula, and use for traumatic injury. Note that this is a twentieth-century provincial survey, not a classical materia medica: Potentilla freyniana has no entry in the Han-to-Qing canon, and any claim of classical pedigree for it should be treated as borrowed from Fan Bai Cao or Wei Ling Cai.

Records the drug as the root and whole plant of Potentilla freyniana Bornm. and its variety sinica Migo, and transmits the alias set that later caused confusion with other Potentilla drugs, including san ye fan bai cao, shan feng zi, san zhua jin, di zhi zhu and du jiao san.

The fullest modern entry. Gives the drug part as root and whole plant, the nature as sweet and warm, and the actions as clearing heat and resolving toxin, astringing sores and stopping bleeding, and dispersing stasis to stop pain, with indications spanning dysentery and enteritis, sores and abscesses, burns, haemorrhage including flooding and post-partum bleeding, snakebite, and gastric, dental and lumbar pain. It also records lang ya wei ling cai among the aliases, which is the source of the confusion with Wei Ling Cai.

The rhizome is the Dong drug Madeng'ai, used for dysentery, malaria, bacterial infection and traumatic bleeding. Every modern pharmacological paper on this species is framed as a validation of that Dong usage rather than of a Han Chinese classical indication, and the three new compounds isolated from the root in 2022 were named madengaisu A to C after it.