The historical background of purple pigment in Asia and Europe has been reviewed in this article. It became evident that major species for the production of purple pigment in Japan was Lithospermum erythrorhizon Sieb. et Zucc. which had been cultivating widely during 8 to 10 centuries in Japan. The structure of major component in L. erythrorhizon, shikonin was elucidated in Japan in 1918, and its biosynthetic pathway was confirmed together with alkannin isolated from Alkanna tinctoria in Europe. The author succeeded to isolate and elucidate the structures of 8 components related to alkannin including 3 novel compounds from A. tinctoria roots, and determined their anti-cancer activities using human colon cancer cell lines, and confirmed the apoptosis mechanism by docking evidence.
東洋と西洋の紫色素
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