Journal of agricultural and food chemistryJan 28, 2010

Ethanol extract of adlay seed coat reduces allergic reactions involving mast cells

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 4, 2026

Abstract

The ethyl acetate fraction from adlay testa suppressed degranulation in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 cells stimulated by 1 microM A23187.

Adlay testa exhibited potent inhibitory activity against beta-hexosaminidase release, a marker of mast cell degranulation.
The 20%-80% EtOAc/Hex subfractions significantly inhibited histamine release with an IC(50) of 75-100 microg/mL.
Adlay testa also suppressed the secretion of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in RBL-2H3 cells.
Inhibition of degranulation was associated with reduced phosphorylation of ERK, a key signaling molecule.
4-hydroxyacetophenone and p-coumaric acid were identified as the two major active compounds in the adlay testa subfractions.

Simplified

Allergy is an immune dysfunction caused by degranulation from mast cells in the early phase and cytokine secretion in the late phase of the cell. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of adlay (Job's tears, Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf) testa against beta-hexosaminidase release as a marker of degranulation in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 cells. The ethyl acetate fraction from ethanolic extracts of adlay testa (ATE-EtOAc) exhibited potent inhibitory activity that suppressed degranulation from RBL-2H3 cells stimulated by 1 microM A23187. The 20%-80% EtOAc/Hex subfractions of ATE-EtOAc significantly inhibited histamine release with a IC(50) of 75-100 microg/mL. In addition, the ATE-EtOAc subfractions suppressed interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha secretion in RBL-2H3 cells, indicating that adlay testa were able to inhibit cytokine secretion. In order to explore the inhibitory mechanism of adlay testa in mast cell degranulation, we examined the activation of intracellular signaling molecules. Adlay testa inhibited the phosphorylation ERK expression. Furthermore, the two major active compounds, 4-hydroxyacetophenone and p-coumaric acid, were isolated from the ATE-EtOAc subfractions. These results suggest that ATE had an inhibitory effect on allergic response via the ERK signaling transduction in RBL-2H3 cells.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View Full Text ↗

Ethanol extract of adlay seed coat reduces allergic reactions involving mast cells

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

What Lands in Your Inbox Each Week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief