Takahiro Shibata

Although herbs and spices have been used in traditional medicine for more than a century owing to their health benefits, the associated underlying mechanism is still not clear. Since the G protein-coupled receptor 35 (GPR35) has been linked to exert various antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, we screened 19 different herbs and spices for possible GPR35 agonist(s) to understand the GPR35-dependent functions of herbs and spices. Among the screened extracts, the ethyl acetate extract of thyme exhibited a remarkable GPR35 agonistic activity. Activity-guided separations allowed us to identify 2 polyphenolic phytochemicals, eriodictyol and thymonin, acting as GPR35 agonists. Both eriodictyol and thymonin showed a potent and specific agonist activity toward GPR35 with half maximal effective concentration values of 5.48 and 8.41 µm, respectively. These findings indicate that these phytochemicals may have beneficial health effects upon GPR35 activation.