Pharmacological actions and clinical use of fructus schizandrae.

Fructus Schizandrae (FS) is a well-known Chinese herb which has been widely used in ancient China. During recent decades, it has been found to be effective in viral and chemical induced hepatitis. In this paper, we report the studies on the chemical constituents and pharmacological actions of FS on mice liver. The results indicated that FS and its several components can mainly protect liver from injury induced by toxic substances such as CCl4; they have anti-oxidant activities against oxygen free radicals; FS and four components have inducing action on liver cytochrome P-450; they also promote certain anabolic metabolism such as serum protein biosynthesis and glycogenesis. All these activities would be of importance in the protection and repair of the injured liver cells. The clinical use of FS is also presented.