Characteristics of Allergy Inducing Materials Isolated from Rhus verniciflua Stokes on BALB/c Mice

Abstract

We purified crude urushiol from natural lacquer produced in Korea, China, and Japan and then isolated several urushiol congeners known to induce allergic reactions. The 3 major kinds of urushiol congeners that were isolated and purified were RV-1 (C21H30O2, M.W. 314.462), RV-2 (C21H32O2, M.W. 316.240) and RV-3 (C23H34O2, M.W. 342.515), occupying 80% of total crude urushiol. The content of RV-1 was the highest in natural lacquer from China at 70.07%, and was the lowest in that from Japan at 62.38%. However, the content of RV-2 in natural lacquer from Japan was 9.25%, 2～3 times higher than those from Korea (4.28%) and China (3.09%). As an allergy inducing character, RV-1 had strong inducing power and durability in the primary stage, showing slow recovery. RV-2 had weak power in the primary stage and also showed slow recovery. Although RV-3 had comparatively weak power at the primary stage, it induced the strongest allergy contact dermatitis after 48 hr. However, it recovered to nearly the same level as control group 72 hr after sensitization time. Accordingly, we found out that RV-1 is the most influential of urushiol congeners in inducing allergic reactions, natural lacquer from China having the most inducible strength and slowest recovery compared to those from Korea and Japan.