Exploring of food components with neurotrophic activity

我们以前曾报道过绿原酸、儿茶素和表儿茶素在无血清培养条件下对胎鼠海马神经元的原代培养有促进神经元分化的作用。在这个项目中，我们评估了这些活性化合物在大鼠口服后的脑吸收。大鼠经儿茶素灌胃后，脑内未检出儿茶素，而用高效液相-电喷雾质谱质谱联用技术检测到其代谢产物3‘-O-甲基儿茶素。我们的发现提出了这样一种可能性，即研究天然产物的生物利用度对于阐明其生物活性的生物活性原理很重要。

We have previously reported that chlorogenic acid, catechin and epicatechin were found to promote neuronal differentiation by using primary cultures of fetal rat hippocampal neurons in a serum-free medium. In this project, we evaluated brain absorption of these active compounds after oral administration to rat. Catechin was not detected in brain after catechin ingestion to rat, whereas its metabolite 3'-O-methylcatechin was observed by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method. Our findings raise the possibility that studying the bioavailability of natural products is important to clarify the bioactive principles of their biological activities.