Deoxyshikonin is one of the main active components in comfrey, belonging to naphthoquinones. Naphthoquinone is the main active component of compost, its content accounts for 31 to 6.5%. It has a variety of physiological and pharmacological activities, such as callus and anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral, antipyretic, hemostatic, anti-tumor, liver protection, hypoglycemic, sedative and immune regulation.

Pharmacological action:

1. Inhibition of chemokines: By inhibiting the activity of chemokines, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antiviral and immune regulation can be achieved. The results also show that shikonin has selective chemokine inhibition, so it is expected to be developed as a drug for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

2. Anti-tumor effect: Shikonin and its derivatives have a certain inhibitory effect on tumor cell 5180. At present, anti-tumor drugs are being screened from the similar structure of shikonin at home and abroad.

3. Anti-inflammatory effect: In recent years, it has been found that the water extract, ether extract and drunken extract of comfrey have better anti-inflammatory effect. Comfrey extract and its naphthoquinone compounds have strong inhibitory effect on Candida albicans, and comfrey ointment can improve candida oral diseases.

4. Liver damage protection: The lipid-soluble and water-soluble extracts of Comfrey showed protective effects on acute liver injury, significantly decreased the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in serum, significantly increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and GSH-PX in liver, and decreased the content of malondialdehyde (MDA). And can significantly reduce the degeneration and necrosis of liver cells.

5. Comfrey treatment of burns in clinical application: comfrey has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory effects, Staphylococcus aureus, pseudomonas aeruginosa and other bacteria have inhibitory effects, and can accelerate epithelial growth, accelerate wound healing. As a scalding medicine, comfrey is widely used in clinical practice. Comfrey preparation is often used in clinical treatment of burn, bedsore, eczema, wound and other skin diseases, the effect is obvious.

Industrial application:

Sinaphthoquinone compounds are also a natural plant pigment, the color from orange red to deep red, purple, can also be used in cosmetics, medical packaging, capsules, industrial printing and dyeing, detergent and other coloring. The composition and structure of many kinds of naphthoquinone compounds determine the broad spectrum of their functions and the diversification of their uses, and can be used as intermediate raw materials for natural series products in many industries. As a natural pigment in cosmetics and printing and dyeing industry, it also has great development and application prospects.

Application：

Used for content determination, identification, pharmacological experiments, activity screening and so on.