Biol. Pharm. Bull. 29(6) 1267—1270 (2006)

iaceae), widely distributed in South-east Asia, especially in most areas of China, and first recorded in “shengnong Bengcaojing” (early in the third century B.C.), has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases for thousands of years. Chemical studies have shown that this plant mainly includes saponins, polysaccharide and homoisoflavonoidal compounds. As the scientific evidence for its clinical efficacy, we formerly found that the aqueous extract of Ophiopogon japonicus (ROJ-ext) presented remarkable anti-inflammatory activity and ruscogenin and ophiopogonin D are two of its active components, which supported its traditional use in the treatment of various diseases associated with inflammation. Meanwhile, its cardiovascular activities, such as anti-ischaemia, anti-arrhythmic, inhibiting platelets aggregation, protecting endothelium from apoptosis, improving microcirculation, and so on have been confirmed in various assay. Furthermore, we also found that ROJ-ext significantly inhibited venous thrombosis, which is linked with its endothelial cell-protective and anti-adhesive activities. However, its antithrombotic activity has not been evaluated in other animal models and little is known about whether its two anti-inflammatory components showed antithrombotic effects. Therefore, following our previous work, the present study was undertaken to investigate the antithrombotic effects of ROJ-ext and its two major components, ruscogenin and ophiopogonin D, by using several animal models so as to provide further evidence for its clinical use in the treatment of thrombotic diseases.