Preparation and Tumor Inhibitory Activity of Tricin from Carex Meyeriana Kunth

This study describes the purification and preparation of tricin (5, 7, 4-trihydroxy-3, 5-dimethoxyflavone) from Carex Meyeriana Kunth via adsorption and desorption using macroporous resins and high-performance liquid chromatography. Six resins were tested to evaluate the static adsorption and desorption capacities. The HPD-300 resin was selected as the adsorption material to enrich tricin because of its suitable adsorption and desorption capacities. Adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics were studied on HPD-300 resin, and the results agreed with the Langmuir model and quasi-second-order kinetics model, respectively. The parameters of the dynamic adsorption and desorption tests were then optimized. The purity of tricin increased from 2.6 mg/g to 45.1 mg/g with a recovery yield of 76.4% after purification using HPD-300 resin. Then, Prep-HPLC was used to further purify tricin. The purity of tricin reached 99.4%, with a recovery yield of 78.0% thereafter. Tricin exerts an inhibitory effect on the proliferation of various tumor cells, including gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells. It significantly suppresses cell colony formation while also altering cell cycle progression metabolism by decreasing the proportion of cells in the G₀/G₁ phase and increasing the proportion in the S and G₂/M phases. Additionally, tricin affects the efficiency of SGC-7901 cell lactate production, ATP content, and glucose uptake. These findings suggest that tricin may impede tumor cell proliferation through its impact on cell cycle progression and energy metabolism.