Smilax china (family Liliaceae) is a native plant grown in China,
Japan, and Korea, and its root has been used as emergency foods in
the past (Huang and others 2008, 2009; Kang and others 2011). It
has also been used as a folk medicine for leptospirosis, syphilis, brucellosis,
rheumatoid arthritis, nephritis, detoxification, and heavy
metal poisoning (Chen and others 2000; Chu and Ng 2006; Sa
and others 2008; Xia and others 2010; Shim 2012b). Although
the Smilax china root contains important bioactive components
including resveratrol and oxyresveratrol, nowadays most of them
are thrown out because it refrains other trees from photosynthesis
through spiraling. There are limited studies on the combinational
effects of polyphenols such as resveratrol and oxyresveratrol in
reducing ROS induced by nicotine and converting nicotine to
cotinine, a safer metabolite, in liver cells. Therefore, we examined
the efficacy of the ethanol extract of the Smilax china root containing
resveratrol and oxyresveratrol in detoxifying nicotine via
scavenging ROS and accelerating nicotine turnover by induction
of CYP2A6 in HepG2 cell.
Materials and Methods
Standards and