Scientists led by Professor Cathie Martin and Doctor Qing Zhao from group of Medicinal Plants and Health, Chenshan Botanical Garden have made great breakthrough in elucidation baicalein biosynthesis from a traditional Chinese medicinal plant Scutellaria baicalensis. They have elucidated the whole biosynthesis pathway of baicalein. This work was published online on the top scientific journal Molecular Plant on 24th August 2017.

Baicalein, wogonin and their glycosides are major bioactive compounds found in the medicinal plant Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. These flavones can induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cell lines but have no effect on normal cells. Furthermore, they have many additional benefits for human health, such as anti-oxidant, antiviral, and liver-protective properties. This study extends our previous work to elucidate the entire biosynthetic pathway for baicalein and an additional hydroxylation step in the pathway to wogonin.

Qing Zhao and Mengying Cui from Chenshan contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700268), the Chenshan Special Fund for Shanghai Landscaping Administration Bureau Program G172402 and G162409.

Full paper: Two CYP82D Enzymes Function as Flavone Hydroxylases in the Biosynthesis of Root-Specific 4′-Deoxyflavones in Scutellaria baicalensis.

http://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/fulltext/S1674-2052(17)30239-3