Thlaspi arvense Linn, known as “Pennycress,” is a plant from the Brassicaceae family that has been traditionally used to treat glomerulonephritis, gastritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. As part of our current projects to discover bioactive compounds from natural resources, three flavonoids (1-3), one diarylheptanoid (4), and two phenolic glycosides (5-6) were isolated from the whole plant of T. arvense via semi-preparative HPLC purification. The chemical structures of compounds 1-6 were elucidated as isoorientin (1), isovitexin (2), isoscoparin (3), oregonin (4), 1,2-disinapoylgentiobiose (5), and 1,2,2’-trisinapoylgentiobiose (6) based on the comparison of their NMR spectroscopic and physical properties with those of previous studies. Notably, this is the first report of the presence of compounds 3-6 in this plant. Compounds 1-6 were then tested to determine their effects on osteogenesis and adipogenesis in the mouse mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) line C3H10T1/2. Among the six compounds, isovitexin (2) was found to promote the osteogenic differentiation of MSCs. As the concentration of 2 increased, the differentiation of MSCs into osteoblasts became more active, as evidenced by the induction of mRNA expression of the osteogenic markers, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and osteopontin (OPN). Accordingly, our findings demonstrate that isovitexin (2) could potentially serve as a valuable compound for the treatment of menopause-associated syndromes, such as osteoporosis, by promoting MSC osteogenesis.

KeywordsThlaspi arvense, Brassicaceae, phenolic compounds, isovitexin, osteogenesis