Investigation of Kelussia odoratissima and Angelica sinensis similarities in zebrafish-based in-vivo bioactivity assays and their chemical composition

Background: Kelussia odoratissima (KO) and Angelica sinensis (AS) have been used in their indigenous traditional medicine, for various diseases. This study was conducted to evaluate the volatile oil composition of KO leaves (KVL) and AS root (AVR) and biological activity of essential oils (EOs) and hydroalcoholic extracts of both plants using two different transgenic zebrafish (Danio rerio) models.Materials and Methods: Both EOs were isolated by hydrodistillation and analysed by GC and GC/MS. For viability tests, larvae were treated with different concentrations of extracts to determine an appropriate starting concentration. Hydroalcoholic extracts and EOs have been tested in a dose-dependent manner for their biological activity using tissue-specific transgenic zebrafish Tg(fli-1: EGFP) and Tg (ins: GFP-NTR) embryos and larvae. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean of pBC area and intersegmental vessels (ISVs) outgrowth between the treatment groups.Results: Eleven compounds were in common to both oils, comprising 51.3% of KVL and 61.7% of AVR, of which 39.3% in KVL and 37.6% in AVR were phthalide structures. Results revealed that both EOs blocked ISVs formation in the Tg (fli-1: EGFP) embryos increased to 10% of the control value, while both hydroalcoholic extracts did not show any anti-angiogenesis effects in these embryos. In addition, AVR has been shown to significantly induce PBC regeneration following ablation in the Tg (ins: GFP-NTR), but its regenerative activity was lower than that of 5′-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine (NECA) as a positive control. Taken together, the anti-angiogenesis activity of both EOs could be attributed to the phthalide structures while for the PBC regenerative activity, other compounds including β-Thujaplicinol, exclusively existing in AVR, might be effective.Conclusion: Although the genera, organs, and origin of these plants are different, their similar chemical composition and biological activities make them valuable resources for further investigation in basic medical and pharmaceutical science.