Studies of Wakan-Yakus (traditional herbal drugs): especially on the effects of Gaiyoh (Artemisiae folium) on blood coagulation.

Wakan-Yakus (traditional herbal drugs) such as Akyoh (Glutinum), Gaiyoh (Artemisiae folium), Sanshishi (Gardeniae fructus), Kizutsu (Aurantii fructus), and Taisoh (Zizyphi fructus) were studied in relation to their effects on blood coagulation-fibrinolysis. (1) All of the water extracts of the Wakan-Yakus prolonged aPTT and PT. The potency of the effectiveness on aPTT was in the order of Gaiyoh (Artemisiae folium) greater than Kizutsu (Aurantii fructus) greater than Sanshishi (Gardeniae fructus) greater than Taisoh (Zizyphi fructus) greater than Akyoh (Glutinum). (2) Gaiyoh (Artemisiae folium) greater than Kizutsu (Aurantii fructus) greater than Akyoh (Glutinum) greater than Taisoh (Zizyphi fructus) showed the antifibrinolytic effects in this order. On the other hand, Sanshishi showed the accelerating effect on fibrinolysis. (3) The inhibition modes of both thrombin and plasmin by Gaiyoh (Artemisiae folium) were shown to be competitive on Lineweaver-Burk plot. (4) Gaiyoh (Artemisiae folium) was gel-filtered on Sephadex G-25 column (1.5 X 90cm) equilibrated with distilled water at room temperature. Five fractions were obtained, and in the first to fourth fraction, strong anticoagulant effects on aPTT and PT were observed. We pooled first and second to make fraction I, and make fraction II from peak 3. The recovery rate was 4.2% by weight, and 36.7% by inhibition activity, and specific activity on the basis of inhibition to aPTT was 34.8% U/mg in the case with fraction II. Fraction I was found to be the same characteristically on blood coagulation. Fraction II was further purified by Sephadex LH-20 column (1.5 X 80 cm) at room temperature. Three fractions (Fraction IIa, IIb, IIc) were obtained, and the strong inhibitory effects was observed on both aPTT and PT in each fraction. The first fraction (fraction IIa) showed the strong inhibitory effect on aPTT, and the heightened specific activity with 17.6% as the recovery rate.