Compound Monograph
Agrimoniin
Agrimoniin is the principal ellagitannin of the strawberry and the type constituent of agrimony, from which it takes its name. It is also an exact structural isomer of sanguiin H-6 — same formula, same mass, different bridge — which is why the two were confused for years and why some pre-2012 berry literature is misattributed. Its own pharmacology is unusually rich for a tannin: an immunostimulant antitumour thread from 1980s Japan, potent enzyme inhibition, and an in-vivo story that runs through gut-microbial metabolites rather than the intact molecule.
Sources · 12
Where Does It Come From?
Agrimoniin is a naturally occurring hydrolysable tannin (dimeric ellagitannin, dehydrodigalloyl-linked), found in Garden strawberry, Wild strawberry, Hairy agrimony and 9 other sources. It is well tolerated orally (low toxicity).
Concentration
Content by Source
Reported concentrations across the plants that contain agrimoniin — the bar marks the typical level, the line shows the reported range.
Literature figures for varying plant parts and preparations. Read them as a comparative guide, not exact assays.
Agrimoniin at a Glance
Agrimoniin is a dimeric ellagitannin of 1,871 Da (C₈₂H₅₄O₅₂) and the compound that makes strawberries an ellagitannin food. It is also the type constituent of the Agrimonia herbs, from whose root it was first pulled in 1982 and after which it is named 1,
Two facts shape everything here.
The first is structural, and it is the reason it needs stating. Agrimoniin is an exact isomer of sanguiin H-6 — identical molecular formula, identical mass, and built from the same kind of parts. What differs is the bridge joining the two halves. For most of the HPLC era the two co-eluted and were reported interchangeably, so a body of berry literature attributed strawberry’s main ellagitannin to sanguiin H-6. A dedicated 2012 structural study exists specifically to correct that: the main ellagitannin of both Fragaria vesca and F. × ananassa is agrimoniin, with sanguiin H-6 present “at a much lower concentration” 3Reference 3Clarifying the identity of the main ellagitannin in the fruit of the strawberry, Fragaria vesca and Fragaria ananassa DuchView study →.
The second is pharmacokinetic, and it is the class ceiling. Agrimoniin is not absorbed intact. What reaches human tissue after a strawberry or a cup of agrimony tea is ellagic acid released by hydrolysis, and then the gut-bacterial metabolites of that — urolithin A, urolithin B and nasutin — produced in quantities that vary enormously between people 4,
Within those constraints agrimoniin has an unusually substantial pharmacology for a tannin. It is a low-micromolar inhibitor of neutrophil elastase, hyaluronidase, aldose reductase and α-glucosidase; the 1980s Japanese tannin literature established it as a genuine host-mediated antitumour agent acting through interleukin-1 and NK-cell induction rather than direct cytotoxicity; and a fresh wave of Chinese in-vivo work has taken it into pancreatic-cancer, colorectal-cancer, liver-graft and hepatopulmonary-syndrome models. None of it has been tested in a human being as the isolated molecule.
Agrimoniin & Sanguiin H-6 — The Confusion Is the Story
These two molecules have the same molecular formula (C₈₂H₅₄O₅₂), the same nominal mass (1,870 Da), and the same fragmentation pattern in the low-resolution mass range 3,
| Agrimoniin | Sanguiin H-6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Formula / mass | C₈₂H₅₄O₅₂, 1,871 Da | C₈₂H₅₄O₅₂, 1,871 Da |
| Monomer unit | potentillin — the α-anomer of 1-O-galloyl-2,3;4,6-bis-HHDP-glucose | casuarictin — the β-anomer of the same monomer |
| Glucose core | α-D-glucopyranose (both cores) | β-D-glucopyranose |
| Linking group | dehydrodigalloyl (DHDG) — a biaryl-ether coupling of two galloyl rings | sanguisorboyl — a galloyl-O-galloyl (depside) ester link |
| Diagnostic hydrolysis product | dehydrodigallic acid, 338 Da | (not produced) |
| Signature plants | strawberry, agrimony, tormentil, cinquefoils | raspberry, blackberry, cloudberry, great burnet |
Okuda’s 1982 title states the key point directly — agrimoniin and potentillin are “an ellagitannin dimer and monomer having an α-glucose core” 1Reference 1Agrimoniin and potentillin, an ellagitannin dimer and monomer having an α-glucose coreView study →. Full NMR of isolated agrimoniin confirms the assembly: four HHDP groups, one dehydrodigalloyl coupler and two α-D-glucopyranose cores, in an asymmetric molecule 7,
Three ways the literature now separates them, all of them real and worth knowing:
- Acid hydrolysis. Under strong acid, agrimoniin yields dehydrodigallic acid (338 Da) as a characteristic product; sanguiin H-6 and lambertianin C do not, because they carry no dehydrodigalloyl group 8Reference 8Major-effect candidate genes identified in cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) for ellagic acid deoxyhexoside and pelargonidin-3-O-malonylglucoside biosynthesisView study →.
- Chromatography. The 2012 study that resolved the identity question also published an HPLC protocol whose stated purpose is “to avoid confusion with sanguiin H-6” 3Reference 3Clarifying the identity of the main ellagitannin in the fruit of the strawberry, Fragaria vesca and Fragaria ananassa DuchView study →, and gave the first full NMR assignments for agrimoniin as a reference point for the whole structural family.
- Provenance. If the plant is a Rubus, the 1,870 Da peak is almost certainly sanguiin H-6; if it is a Fragaria, Agrimonia or Potentilla, it is almost certainly agrimoniin. Both occur in both genera as minor components, so provenance is a prior, not a proof.
Practical consequence: treat pre-2012 attributions of a 1,870 Da ellagitannin in strawberry with caution. They may well be agrimoniin misreported. The reverse error — agrimoniin credited in a Rubus material — appears too, and analytical papers still write the pair as “sanguiin H-6 or agrimoniin” when they cannot resolve them 30Reference 30Structural elucidation of the ellagitannin with a molecular weight of 2038 isolated from strawberry fruit (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) and named fragariin AView study →.
What It's Used For
The isolate literature is real and broader than most ellagitannins can claim: purified agrimoniin has been tested in enzyme assays, in mast cells, in mitochondria, in cancer cell lines, and in at least six separate rodent models. There is still no human trial of the isolated compound, and the one human in-vivo result belongs to an agrimoniin-enriched fraction, not the molecule.
Support is an experimental score — weighted by study type (human > animal > in vitro) and volume. A beta, not a validated metric. Scores are capped: there are no human trials of the isolated molecule, and the bioavailability ceiling applies to every row. Each application links to its write-up.
The best-supported application, and the only one that has reached a human subject in any form. Potentilla erecta (tormentil) rhizome contains up to 20% tannins and 5% ellagitannins, mainly agrimoniin; four Sephadex fractions with increasing agrimoniin content were tested, and the richest (PE4) was the most effective throughout. PE4 inhibited UVB-induced COX-2 expression in HaCaT keratinocytes, dose-dependently reduced PGE₂, and dose-dependently inhibited phosphorylation of the EGF receptor, the step upstream of UVB-driven COX-2. A placebo-controlled UV-erythema study in people then showed dose-dependent inhibition of UVB-induced inflammation, and PE4 significantly reduced UVB-induced PGE₂ in suction-blister fluid in vivo 17Reference 17In vitroAnti-inflammatory effects of agrimoniin-enriched fractions of Potentilla erecta — in vitro and human UV-erythema studyView study →.
The whole P. erecta extract separately reduced IL-6, PGE₂ and TNF-α-induced NF-κB activation in keratinocytes and produced a blanching effect comparable to hydrocortisone — without engaging the glucocorticoid receptor 37Reference 37In vitroAnti-inflammatory and vasoconstrictive properties of Potentilla erecta — in vitro and human patch testView study →.
Three isolate results explain the mechanism at the enzyme level. Purified agrimoniin is one of the most potent direct inhibitors of human neutrophil elastase yet found among plant phenolics (IC₅₀ 0.9 µM), though ligand docking suggested the inhibition is unspecific 16Reference 16In vitroPlant phenolics inhibit neutrophil elastase — in vitroView study →.
It inhibits hyaluronidase at IC₅₀ 2.65 µM and lipoxidase at 36.5 µM, and scavenges H₂O₂ with an SC₅₀ of 0.20 µM 19Reference 19In vitroIn vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of extracts from Potentilla recta and its main ellagitannin, agrimoniinView study →.
And in rat peritoneal mast cells it was, with euphorbin C, the most effective inhibitor of superoxide-induced histamine release tested (IC₅₀ 0.68 µM) — more potent than azelastine, astemizole, ketotifen or epinastine, with the authors proposing membrane stabilisation plus radical scavenging 23Reference 23In vitroEffects of tannins and related polyphenols on superoxide-induced histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells — in vitroView study →.
Gap: the human study used a fraction, so the effect cannot be assigned to agrimoniin alone, and it was topical — which sidesteps the absorption problem rather than solving it. The enzyme IC₅₀s are cell-free, and where the anti-inflammatory activity of orally-taken ellagitannin plant material has been dissected, it travelled with the urolithin metabolites rather than the parent tannin 4Reference 4Role of human gut microbiota metabolism in the anti-inflammatory effect of traditionally used ellagitannin-rich plant materials — ex vivoView study →.
An unusually clean line of isolate work, in which agrimoniin was repeatedly identified as the active principle of a herb rather than assumed to be.
α-Glucosidase. Screening 85 Rosaceous tea plants, Agrimonia asiatica herb gave the strongest α-glucosidase inhibition, and HPLC activity-based profiling localised it to agrimoniin, ahead of ellagic acid and isoquercitrin 38Reference 38Phenolome of Asian agrimony tea (Agrimonia asiatica Juz., Rosaceae) — LC-MS profile, α-glucosidase inhibitory potential and stabilityView study →. The same group did the decisive experiment on marsh cinquefoil (Comarum palustre): the herb extract inhibited α-glucosidase at IC₅₀ 52.0 µg/mL, removing the ellagitannins pushed that to 204.7 µg/mL, and purified agrimoniin alone gave IC₅₀ 21.8 µg/mL 21Reference 21AnimalAgrimoniin, an active ellagitannin from Comarum palustre herb with anti-α-glucosidase and antidiabetic potential in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →. That is a subtraction experiment, which is worth more than a correlation.
In vivo. In streptozotocin diabetic rats, oral agrimoniin at 100 mg/kg for 21 days significantly reduced serum glucose and normalised body weight, plasma insulin, total haemoglobin and HbA₁c, performing comparably to the full extract and to insulin; healthy animals given the same dose were indistinguishable from controls 21Reference 21AnimalAgrimoniin, an active ellagitannin from Comarum palustre herb with anti-α-glucosidase and antidiabetic potential in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →. (The published abstract of that paper describes the direction of change incorrectly — the body of the paper, its figures and its conclusion all report the reduction. We follow the body.)
Aldose reductase. Agrimoniin isolated from Agrimonia pilosa inhibited rat lens aldose reductase at IC₅₀ 1.6 µM (DPPH IC₅₀ 13.0 µM), reduced sorbitol accumulation in rat lens ex vivo by 47.6%, and inhibited recombinant human aldose reductase non-competitively 22Reference 22In vitroPhytochemical analysis of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb, its antioxidant activity and aldose reductase inhibitory potential — in vitro and ex vivoView study →. Aldose reductase is the polyol-pathway enzyme implicated in diabetic cataract and neuropathy.
Gap: every one of these is luminal-plausible for α-glucosidase — a brush-border enzyme a swallowed tannin can genuinely reach — and implausible for aldose reductase, which sits inside the lens and nerve, where an unabsorbed 1,871 Da tannin cannot go. The two should not be read as one story. No human glycaemic study of agrimoniin or of an agrimoniin-standardised extract exists.
The oldest and most distinctive thread here, and the one most often quoted without its caveats. Between 1987 and 1999 Miyamoto, Murayama, Koshiura and colleagues at Kanazawa established agrimoniin as a host-mediated antitumour tannin.
Intraperitoneal agrimoniin at doses over 10 mg/kg, given before or after inoculation, almost completely rejected MM2 ascites tumour growth in mice; it prolonged survival or cured animals by intravenous and oral routes as well, and inhibited MH134 and Meth-A solid tumours. Injection raised peripheral white cells and the monocyte fraction, enlarged the spleen, and increased cytotoxic adherent peritoneal exudate cells by day 4 24Reference 24AnimalAntitumor effect of agrimoniin, a tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb., on transplantable rodent tumors — mouse studyView study →.
The mechanism was then unpicked: NK activity in non-adherent peritoneal cells peaked 2 days after injection, cytostatic activity of adherent cells followed, and antibody-dependent cell lysis peaked at day 6 25Reference 25AnimalInduction of cytotoxicity of peritoneal exudate cells by agrimoniin, a novel immunomodulatory tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. — mouse studyView study →.
Agrimoniin induced interleukin-1β dose- and time-dependently from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro, and from mouse peritoneal cells in vivo after 10 mg/kg 26Reference 26In vitroAgrimoniin, an antitumor tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb., induces interleukin-1 — in vitro and mouse studyView study →.
The group summarised the whole programme as “host-mediated anticancer activities of tannins” 33Reference 33ReviewHost-mediated anticancer activities of tannins — reviewView study →.
The caveat is in their own data. Agrimoniin’s direct cytotoxicity on MM2 cells in culture was reduced to about 4% of its initial activity by adding fetal calf serum 24Reference 24AnimalAntitumor effect of agrimoniin, a tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb., on transplantable rodent tumors — mouse studyView study → — a plain demonstration that this molecule is largely neutralised by serum protein binding, which is what a large polyphenol does. So the in-vitro cytotoxicity is not the mechanism, and the effective doses were mostly delivered by injection, bypassing the gut entirely.
Gap: these are 1987-1999 transplantable rodent models in one laboratory, essentially unreplicated for a quarter of a century, and the delivery routes that worked best are ones nobody would use for a dietary tannin. Nothing here supports oral agrimoniin as an immune therapy.
A new and fast-growing body of Chinese in-vivo work, mechanistically ambitious and internally inconsistent.
Pancreatic cancer. Agrimoniin inhibited PANC-1 proliferation by inducing apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest, acting as a dual AKT and ERK pathway inhibitor — confirmed with SC79, LY294002 and U0126 — and potentiated both inhibitors; in-vivo experiments supported the finding 31Reference 31In vitroAgrimoniin is a dual inhibitor of AKT and ERK pathways that inhibit pancreatic cancer cell proliferation — in vitro and in vivoView study →. A separate group reported that agrimoniin raises ROS in pancreatic cancer cells by suppressing the Nrf2-dependent scavenging system, disrupts mitochondrial membrane potential, lowers mTOR/HIF-1α, and reduces both oxygen consumption and extracellular acidification rates, with a nude-mouse subcutaneous model 34Reference 34In vitroAgrimoniin sensitizes pancreatic cancer to apoptosis through ROS-mediated energy metabolism dysfunction — in vitro and nude mouse studyView study →.
Colorectal cancer. In AOM/DSS-induced colorectal cancer mice, Agrimonia pilosa root extract attenuated tumour formation dose-dependently, shifted the tumour microenvironment (more γδ T cells, fewer myeloid-derived suppressor cells) and remodelled the gut microbiota; of all constituents tested, agrimoniin and agrimonolide-6-O-glucoside showed the strongest anti-colorectal effect in vivo and in vitro 27Reference 27AnimalThe anti-colorectal cancer effect and metabolites of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. — AOM/DSS mouse modelView study →. The same paper found the extract’s gastrointestinal metabolites to be agrimonolide derivatives and urolithins.
Organ protection. Supplementing University of Wisconsin cold-storage solution with agrimoniin reduced oxidative damage and ferroptosis in donation-after-cardiac-death rat liver grafts and in human liver cell lines, by activating Nrf2 28Reference 28AnimalAgrimoniin alleviates ferroptosis in cold-stored DCD liver grafts through activation of the Nrf-2 pathway — rat and human cell studyView study →. In bile-duct-ligated hepatopulmonary-syndrome rats, agrimoniin at 3 or 8 mg/kg/day improved liver and lung function by inhibiting pathological angiogenesis and glycolysis, with PGC-1α identified by docking as the target and its inhibition abolishing the benefit 29Reference 29AnimalAgrimoniin ameliorates intrapulmonary angiogenesis and improves hypoxemia in hepatopulmonary syndrome via PGC-1α activation — rat studyView study →.
Mitochondria. Agrimoniin purified from A. pilosa to 80% (NMR) was cytotoxic to K562 and HeLa cells; on isolated rat liver mitochondria, 10 µM induced low-amplitude swelling blocked by the permeability-transition-pore inhibitors ADP and cyclosporine A, promoted calcium-induced pore opening, stimulated succinate-supported respiration, reduced DCPIP and chelated iron ions 36Reference 36In vitroNew properties and mitochondrial targets of polyphenol agrimoniin as a natural anticancer and preventive agent — in vitroView study →.
Gap, and it is a large one. The Nrf2 direction is reported both ways — activated in liver-graft protection 28Reference 28AnimalAgrimoniin alleviates ferroptosis in cold-stored DCD liver grafts through activation of the Nrf-2 pathway — rat and human cell studyView study →, suppressed in pancreatic cancer 34Reference 34In vitroAgrimoniin sensitizes pancreatic cancer to apoptosis through ROS-mediated energy metabolism dysfunction — in vitro and nude mouse studyView study → — which at minimum means the effect is context-dependent and at worst means one result will not replicate. Effective in-vivo doses (3-8 mg/kg) are far below what oral dosing of an unabsorbed tannin would put into plasma, and none of these papers measured plasma agrimoniin. And in the cytotoxicity work, no selectivity index against normal cells was reported for the isolate. The nearest thing is extract-level: acetone extracts of several Potentilla species were markedly more toxic to LS180 colon cancer cells than to normal CCD841 CoN colonocytes (best case IC₅₀ 38 vs. 1,134 µg/mL) — a real selectivity measurement, but of a mixture 39,
The application where poor absorption is least of a problem, because a swallowed tannin reaches gastric mucosa at high local concentration by definition.
Tannin-enriched strawberry extracts inhibited IL-8 secretion in TNFα-treated human gastric epithelial cells by dampening NF-κB signalling, and survived simulated gastric digestion largely intact. Testing the pure compounds separated their mechanisms: casuarictin behaved as a pure NF-κB inhibitor, while agrimoniin inhibited IL-8 while also acting on other targets — and the authors state the activity occurs at nutritionally relevant concentrations 18Reference 18In vitroStrawberry tannins inhibit IL-8 secretion in a cell model of gastric inflammation — in vitroView study →.
A follow-up extended this to infection: strawberry extract and its two ellagitannins, agrimoniin and casuarictin, inhibited IL-8 and IL-6 release from GES-1 cells challenged with Helicobacter pylori, again via NF-κB, and showed antibacterial activity against cagA⁺ H. pylori growth while being less active against the cagA⁻ strain 20Reference 20In vitroInvestigating ellagitannins from strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) as a new strategy to counteract H. pylori infection and inflammation — in vitroView study →.
Gap: cell culture only. There is no animal gastric model of purified agrimoniin and no human gastritis or H. pylori trial. The strain-dependence of the antibacterial effect is interesting but unexplained, and a differential effect between two strains is the kind of finding that needs replication before it means anything.
Thinner than the tannin reputation suggests, but with one modern result that is unusually specific for this class.
Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) extract inhibited carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and combinatorial RNA-seq identified agrimoniin and ellagic acid as the two bioactive components, acting by disrupting intracellular iron homeostasis — an effect reversed by exogenous iron supplementation. Tormentil also potentiated the last-resort antibiotic colistin 35Reference 35In vitroBogland plant tormentil inhibits multidrug-resistant pathogen growth and potentiates antibiotics by disrupting iron homeostasis — in vitroView study →.
Iron chelation is independently documented for purified agrimoniin against mitochondrial iron 36Reference 36In vitroNew properties and mitochondrial targets of polyphenol agrimoniin as a natural anticancer and preventive agent — in vitroView study →, so the two findings converge on a plausible mechanism rather than the usual undifferentiated “polyphenols are antibacterial.”
Elsewhere the evidence is extract-level: a tormentil-extract hydrogel completely inhibited cariogenic Streptococcus mutans biofilm at 2 mg/mL, in a preparation whose dominant components were oligomeric proanthocyanidins and agrimoniin 41Reference 41In vitroHydrogel containing an extract of Tormentillae rhizoma for the treatment of biofilm-related oral diseases — in vitroView study →; and Agrimonia procera inhibited E. coli and Pediococcus growth in vitro, though in lipopolysaccharide-challenged piglets it increased the febrile and TNF-α response rather than damping it 42Reference 42Agrimonia procera exerts antimicrobial effects, modulates the expression of defensins and cytokines in colonocytes and increases the immune response in lipopolysaccharide-challenged pigletsView study →.
Gap: the Acinetobacter result is in vitro with no animal model, the biofilm and piglet work used mixtures, and the piglet result is a reminder that an immunostimulant tannin is not automatically an anti-inflammatory one. Concentrations are not stated in a form that maps onto achievable gut or tissue levels.
Real chemistry, honestly apportioned in at least one study, and systemically irrelevant.
Across three strawberry cultivars’ agro-industrial by-products, agrimoniin was the principal polyphenol (0.38-1.56 g/kg) and showed the highest correlation of any compound with antioxidant capacity (R² 0.87, p < 0.001) 43Reference 43Strawberry agro-industrial by-products as a source of bioactive compounds — effect of cultivar on the phenolic profile and the antioxidant capacityView study →.
In 90 Fragaria × ananassa cultivars, tannins — ellagitannins with agrimoniin in particular — had the greatest single influence on ABTS antioxidant activity 44Reference 44Comparison of polyphenol content and antioxidant capacity of strawberry fruit from 90 cultivars of Fragaria × ananassa DuchView study →.
Purified agrimoniin scavenges DPPH (IC₅₀ 13.0 µM) 22Reference 22In vitroPhytochemical analysis of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb, its antioxidant activity and aldose reductase inhibitory potential — in vitro and ex vivoView study →, scavenges H₂O₂ at SC₅₀ 0.20 µM and superoxide, hypochlorous acid and DPPH concentration-dependently 19Reference 19In vitroIn vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of extracts from Potentilla recta and its main ellagitannin, agrimoniinView study →, and chelates iron 36Reference 36In vitroNew properties and mitochondrial targets of polyphenol agrimoniin as a natural anticancer and preventive agent — in vitroView study →.
Gap: these are chemical and cell-free systems, and the compound does not enter the circulation. A pilot human experiment showing raised serum total antioxidant capacity after eating Fragaria viridis fruit 15Reference 15Fragaria viridis fruit metabolites — variation of LC-MS profile and antioxidant potential during ripening and storageView study → is a whole-food result in which anthocyanins, ascorbic acid and metabolites are all in play — it says nothing about agrimoniin specifically.
Mechanisms
| Target / pathway | Effect | Relevant to |
|---|---|---|
| Human neutrophil elastase | direct inhibition, IC₅₀ 0.9 µM; docking suggests unspecific binding 16Reference 16In vitroPlant phenolics inhibit neutrophil elastase — in vitroView study → | anti-inflammatory |
| Hyaluronidase; lipoxidase | IC₅₀ 2.65 µM and 36.5 µM 19Reference 19In vitroIn vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of extracts from Potentilla recta and its main ellagitannin, agrimoniinView study → | anti-inflammatoryskin |
| EGFR phosphorylation → COX-2 → PGE₂ | dose-dependent inhibition in UVB-irradiated keratinocytes; PGE₂ fall confirmed in human blister fluid 17Reference 17In vitroAnti-inflammatory effects of agrimoniin-enriched fractions of Potentilla erecta — in vitro and human UV-erythema studyView study → | anti-inflammatory (topical) |
| Mast-cell histamine release (superoxide-induced) | IC₅₀ 0.68 µM — membrane stabilisation plus radical scavenging 23Reference 23In vitroEffects of tannins and related polyphenols on superoxide-induced histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells — in vitroView study → | antiallergic |
| NF-κB → IL-8 / IL-6 in gastric epithelium | suppressed at nutritionally relevant concentrations; agrimoniin also hits targets outside NF-κB 18, | gastroprotective |
| α-Glucosidase (brush border) | IC₅₀ 21.8 µg/mL; the ellagitannin fraction carries most of a herb’s activity 21, | hypoglycemic |
| Aldose reductase | non-competitive, IC₅₀ 1.6 µM — but intracellular, so unreachable orally 22Reference 22In vitroPhytochemical analysis of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb, its antioxidant activity and aldose reductase inhibitory potential — in vitro and ex vivoView study → | diabetic complications (theoretical) |
| IL-1β induction; NK activation; ADCC | host immune activation after injection; the antitumour effect is host-mediated, not cytotoxic 24, | immunomodulator |
| AKT and ERK pathways | dual inhibition in pancreatic carcinoma cells 31Reference 31In vitroAgrimoniin is a dual inhibitor of AKT and ERK pathways that inhibit pancreatic cancer cell proliferation — in vitro and in vivoView study → | anticancer (in vitro / xenograft) |
| Nrf2 | reported both ways — suppressed in pancreatic cancer 34Reference 34In vitroAgrimoniin sensitizes pancreatic cancer to apoptosis through ROS-mediated energy metabolism dysfunction — in vitro and nude mouse studyView study →, activated in liver-graft protection 28Reference 28AnimalAgrimoniin alleviates ferroptosis in cold-stored DCD liver grafts through activation of the Nrf-2 pathway — rat and human cell studyView study → | unresolved |
| Mitochondrial permeability transition pore; iron chelation | pore opening at 10 µM, blocked by ADP and cyclosporine A; direct iron binding 36Reference 36In vitroNew properties and mitochondrial targets of polyphenol agrimoniin as a natural anticancer and preventive agent — in vitroView study → | apoptosisantimicrobial |
| Bacterial intracellular iron homeostasis | growth inhibition of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii, rescued by exogenous iron 35Reference 35In vitroBogland plant tormentil inhibits multidrug-resistant pathogen growth and potentiates antibiotics by disrupting iron homeostasis — in vitroView study → | antimicrobial |
| Serum protein binding | direct cytotoxicity falls to ~4% of initial on adding serum 24Reference 24AnimalAntitumor effect of agrimoniin, a tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb., on transplantable rodent tumors — mouse studyView study → | the ceiling on every cytotoxicity number above |
| Gut hydrolysis → ellagic acid → urolithins / nasutin | the actual in-vivo species; the dimer converts more slowly than monomers 5, | pharmacokinetics |
The last two rows govern the rest. A molecule whose cytotoxicity is 96% quenched by serum, and which never reaches serum anyway, is not doing its cell-culture pharmacology inside a person.
Pharmacokinetics
There is no human pharmacokinetic study of agrimoniin — no plasma concentration, no half-life, no bioavailability figure. What exists is animal and ex-vivo, and it is consistent.
It is converted, not absorbed. Human faecal microbiota cultures were used to compare fifteen monomeric and dimeric ellagitannins including agrimoniin; every ellagitannin carrying HHDP groups was metabolised to urolithins, and the amounts differed enough that the authors concluded individual microbiota composition and the type of ellagitannin ingested together determine the rate of urolithin production 45Reference 45Differences in metabolism of ellagitannins by human gut microbiota ex vivo culturesView study →. Aqueous extracts of agrimoniin-rich pharmacopoeial materials — Potentilla erecta rhizome, Potentilla anserina herb, meadowsweet, avens, oak bark — all yielded urolithins A, B and C on incubation with human faecal samples, and it was the urolithins, not the parent tannins, that carried the anti-inflammatory activity in macrophages 4Reference 4Role of human gut microbiota metabolism in the anti-inflammatory effect of traditionally used ellagitannin-rich plant materials — ex vivoView study →.
Size and degree of polymerisation change the destination. In rats fed matched polyphenol diets, ellagic acid gave urolithin A as the predominant metabolite; low-DP ellagitannins gave nasutin followed by urolithin A; and higher-DP ellagitannins — the dimeric agrimoniin fraction — gave nasutin only 6Reference 6AnimalEllagitannins from strawberries with different degrees of polymerization showed different metabolism through the gastrointestinal tract of ratsView study →. A companion study found that rats fed strawberry seeds (monomers plus agrimoniin) reached higher caecal urolithin A and nasutin than rats fed raspberry seeds (sanguiin H-6 plus lambertianin C), despite the raspberry seeds carrying more polyphenol 5Reference 5AnimalChemical composition of defatted strawberry and raspberry seeds and the effect of these dietary ingredients on polyphenol metabolites, intestinal function and selected serum parameters — rat studyView study →. Agrimoniin sits in the middle of that gradient: less polymerised than the Rubus trimer, more than a monomer.
What survives digestion. In-vitro digestion of a strawberry by-product returned a bioaccessibility of 36.5% for total phenolics with agrimoniin the predominant compound 46Reference 46In vitroKinetic ultrasound-assisted extraction as a sustainable approach for the recovery of phenolics accumulated through UVA treatment in strawberry by-products — in vitroView study → — a measure of release from the food matrix, not of absorption across the gut wall. Simulated gastric digestion barely altered strawberry tannins chemically or biologically 18Reference 18In vitroStrawberry tannins inhibit IL-8 secretion in a cell model of gastric inflammation — in vitroView study →, which is why the gastric applications are the plausible ones.
Practically: agrimoniin’s distribution volume is the gut lumen. Its pharmacologically relevant descendants are ellagic acid locally and urolithins systemically, and whether you make urolithins at all depends on your gut microbiota — humans sort into urolithin metabotypes A, B and 0 — metabotype A producing urolithin A only, metabotype B also producing urolithin B and isourolithin A, and metabotype 0 producing essentially neither — which is why the same dose of the same berry is not the same exposure in two people 47Reference 47Ellagic acid metabolism by human gut microbiota — consistent observation of three urolithin phenotypes in intervention trials, independent of food source, age and health statusView study →.
Clinical Trials
None. Agrimoniin has never been administered to human beings as a purified compound in any registered or published trial. The human data adjacent to it are: a placebo-controlled UV-erythema study of an agrimoniin-enriched Potentilla erecta fraction applied topically, which is fraction-level and dermal 17Reference 17In vitroAnti-inflammatory effects of agrimoniin-enriched fractions of Potentilla erecta — in vitro and human UV-erythema studyView study →; two clinical studies of Agrimonia eupatoria infusion reporting hepatoprotective and cardiometabolic effects, which are whole-herb 32Reference 32Agrimonia eupatoria L. — an integrative perspective on ethnomedicinal use, phenolic composition and pharmacological activityView study →; and a pilot serum-antioxidant-capacity experiment after eating Fragaria viridis fruit 15Reference 15Fragaria viridis fruit metabolites — variation of LC-MS profile and antioxidant potential during ripening and storageView study →.
| Completed | Planned | Terminated | Preclinical |
|---|---|---|---|
| None of the isolate (one human study of an enriched fraction, topical) | — | — | Six rodent models: MM2/MH134/Meth-A tumours, STZ diabetes, AOM/DSS colon cancer, pancreatic xenograft, DCD liver graft, hepatopulmonary syndrome |
Last checked: August 2026.
Isolate vs. Plant Studies
Agrimoniin does better on this axis than most ellagitannins, because it is commercially isolable at reasonable purity from cheap material and has been used as a reference standard for decades.
Genuinely isolate work: the elastase, hyaluronidase and histamine-release assays 16,
Where mixtures did the work: the human UV-erythema result used a fraction 17Reference 17In vitroAnti-inflammatory effects of agrimoniin-enriched fractions of Potentilla erecta — in vitro and human UV-erythema studyView study →; the gastroprotection studies used tannin-enriched strawberry extracts with the pure compounds tested alongside 18,
Two structural cautions travel with this molecule specifically. First, purity claims vary — one influential mitochondrial study used material that was 80% agrimoniin by NMR 36Reference 36In vitroNew properties and mitochondrial targets of polyphenol agrimoniin as a natural anticancer and preventive agent — in vitroView study →, while the analytical literature works with ≥95-97% standards 7Reference 7Fragaria × ananassa cvView study →. Second, and more consequential, the serum-quenching result 24Reference 24AnimalAntitumor effect of agrimoniin, a tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb., on transplantable rodent tumors — mouse studyView study → means an in-vitro concentration is not interchangeable with an in-vivo one even at the same molarity: the assay medium determines how much free agrimoniin there is.
Its Role in Plants
Agrimoniin belongs to the oxidative branch of the hydrolysable-tannin pathway. Gallic acid esterified onto glucose gives β-pentagalloyl-D-glucose; oxidative C-C coupling of adjacent galloyl groups produces the hexahydroxydiphenoyl (HHDP) units that define an ellagitannin, giving the bis-HHDP-α-glucose monomer potentillin; and a further oxidative C-O coupling of the two monomers’ remaining galloyl groups produces the dehydrodigalloyl bridge and the dimer 1,
Functionally this is a defence polyphenol, and the distribution matches. Agrimoniin concentrates overwhelmingly in vegetative and reproductive tissue rather than in flesh: in fragrant agrimony it is 94% of the total polyphenols of the stem and over 90% of the seed, against about 30% of the hypanthium 10Reference 10The aerial parts of Agrimonia procera Wallr. and Agrimonia eupatoria L. as a source of polyphenols, and especially agrimoniin and flavonoidsView study →; in strawberry it is the single most abundant compound in the leaf at 3-8% of dry matter, roughly a thousand times its concentration in the fruit 7Reference 7Fragaria × ananassa cvView study →. Mass-spectrometry imaging of ripe strawberry shows the fruit’s ellagitannins clustered in and around the achene seed coats and the lower receptacle rather than through the flesh 50Reference 50Unique distribution of ellagitannins in ripe strawberry fruit revealed by mass spectrometry imagingView study → — the seed being what the plant is actually protecting.
Levels also respond to stress and to development. Benzothiadiazole treatment of strawberry raised leaf ellagitannins 2- to 6-fold within four days and improved powdery-mildew resistance, with the increase persisting only in inoculated plants 51Reference 51Benzothiadiazole induces the accumulation of phenolics and improves resistance to powdery mildew in strawberriesView study →; in Alchemilla the ellagitannins accumulate markedly between May and August 52Reference 52Phenolic constituents from Alchemilla vulgaris L. and Alchemilla mollis (Buser) Rothm. at different dates of harvestView study →; and ellagitannins fall significantly as strawberry fruit ripens, with genotype the dominant factor in both amount and pattern 53Reference 53Evolution of ellagitannin content and profile during fruit ripening in Fragaria sppView study →.
Prevalence in Nature
Agrimoniin is a Rosaceae molecule, and within Rosaceae a Fragaria / Agrimonia / Potentilla one. Its PubMed footprint is modest — 58 records for the compound name, of which 17 pair it with Agrimonia and 14 with Fragaria.
In Fragaria — the dietary source. It is the main ellagitannin of both wild and garden strawberry fruit 3Reference 3Clarifying the identity of the main ellagitannin in the fruit of the strawberry, Fragaria vesca and Fragaria ananassa DuchView study →, and the ellagitannin fraction is what drives strawberry’s measured antioxidant capacity 43,
In Agrimonia — the namesake. Both pharmacopoeial agrimonies carry it as the dominant polyphenol, and they differ sharply in how much: fragrant agrimony (A. procera) is a far better source than common agrimony (A. eupatoria), a difference the pharmacopoeial total-tannin assay cannot detect 11Reference 11The phytochemical investigation of Agrimonia eupatoria L. and Agrimonia procera Wallr. as valid sources of Agrimoniae herba — the pharmacopoeial plant materialView study →. Mean agrimoniin runs 1,856 mg/100 g DW in A. procera leaf and 3,039 mg/100 g in its stem, against 427 mg/100 g in A. eupatoria leaf 10Reference 10The aerial parts of Agrimonia procera Wallr. and Agrimonia eupatoria L. as a source of polyphenols, and especially agrimoniin and flavonoidsView study →; validated analysis of pharmacopoeial Agrimoniae eupatoriae herba gives 2.6-5.4 mg/g, the dominant member of a 6.3-10.9 mg/g tannin fraction 12Reference 12Development and validation of an HPLC-DAD-CAD-MS³ method for qualitative and quantitative standardization of polyphenols in Agrimoniae eupatoriae herba (PhView study →. The Asian species A. asiatica is likewise agrimoniin-led 38Reference 38Phenolome of Asian agrimony tea (Agrimonia asiatica Juz., Rosaceae) — LC-MS profile, α-glucosidase inhibitory potential and stabilityView study →. The original source, A. pilosa root, remains the preparative material of choice 22,
In Potentilla and relatives. Tormentil (P. erecta) rhizome contains agrimoniin at a mean of about 2.5% of the rhizome, within a >20% total tannin content dominated by procyanidins B3 and C2; tinctures carry proportionally less 13Reference 13Quantification of tannins and related polyphenols in commercial products of tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla)View study →. Marsh cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) herb extract reaches 241 mg/g of extract, with the monomer potentillin at 23 mg/g alongside 21Reference 21AnimalAgrimoniin, an active ellagitannin from Comarum palustre herb with anti-α-glucosidase and antidiabetic potential in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →. Silverweed (P. anserina) herb is a standardised source 54Reference 54Phenolic profile of Potentilla anserina L. (Rosaceae) herb of Siberian origin and a rapid method for simultaneous determination of major phenolics in P. anserina pharmaceutical productsView study →, and agrimoniin has been reported across at least fifteen further Potentilla species in phytochemical surveys 39,
Where it is not. Agrimoniin is a minor Rubus constituent, not a major one — raspberry and blackberry belong to sanguiin H-6 and lambertianin C 5,
Major Natural Sources
| Source | Part | Reported level | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) | leaf | 29.9-80.8 mg/g 7Reference 7Fragaria × ananassa cvView study → | dry matter; most abundant compound in the leaf |
| Fragrant agrimony (Agrimonia procera) | stem / leaf | 26.4-39.3 / 15.8-21.7 mg/g 10Reference 10The aerial parts of Agrimonia procera Wallr. and Agrimonia eupatoria L. as a source of polyphenols, and especially agrimoniin and flavonoidsView study → | dry weight; 94% / 47% of total polyphenols |
| Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) | rhizome | ~25 mg/g 13Reference 13Quantification of tannins and related polyphenols in commercial products of tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla)View study → | dry rhizome; mean of commercial samples |
| Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) | leaf | 14.8-27.0 mg/g 7Reference 7Fragaria × ananassa cvView study → | dry matter |
| Common agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) | herb (Ph. Eur.) | 2.6-5.4 mg/g 12Reference 12Development and validation of an HPLC-DAD-CAD-MS³ method for qualitative and quantitative standardization of polyphenols in Agrimoniae eupatoriae herba (PhView study → | dry herb; dominant tannin |
| Marsh cinquefoil (Comarum palustre) | herb extract | 241 mg/g 21Reference 21AnimalAgrimoniin, an active ellagitannin from Comarum palustre herb with anti-α-glucosidase and antidiabetic potential in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study → | dry extract, not dry plant |
| Strawberry by-products (calyx, sepal, stem) | processing residue | 0.38-1.56 g/kg 43Reference 43Strawberry agro-industrial by-products as a source of bioactive compounds — effect of cultivar on the phenolic profile and the antioxidant capacityView study → | by-product weight; principal polyphenol |
| Creamy strawberry (Fragaria viridis) | fruit | 1.41-2.63 mg/g 15Reference 15Fragaria viridis fruit metabolites — variation of LC-MS profile and antioxidant potential during ripening and storageView study → | fresh weight |
| Garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) | fruit | 2.9-9.3 mg/100 g 8Reference 8Major-effect candidate genes identified in cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) for ellagic acid deoxyhexoside and pelargonidin-3-O-malonylglucoside biosynthesisView study → | fresh weight; quantified against gallic acid at 260 nm |
| Rosaceae herbal products (assorted) | finished preparations | 0.57-3.23% 14Reference 14Development of chromatographic methods for determination of agrimoniin and related polyphenols in pharmaceutical productsView study → | product weight |
The two fresh-fruit rows disagree by about thirtyfold, and the gap is at least partly methodological — Davik’s cultivated-strawberry figures were quantified against gallic acid as external standard, Olennikov’s F. viridis figures against a different basis. A cross-calibrated fresh-weight strawberry figure using a purified agrimoniin standard is the single most useful missing number for this molecule.
Discovery & Synthesis
Agrimoniin was isolated and named in 1982 by Takuo Okuda, Takashi Yoshida, Masahiro Kuwahara, M. Usman Memon and Toshiyuki Shingu, working on the root of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. The communication announced two compounds at once — the dimer agrimoniin and its monomer potentillin — and its title carries the structural headline: they are “an ellagitannin dimer and monomer having an α-glucose core” 1Reference 1Agrimoniin and potentillin, an ellagitannin dimer and monomer having an α-glucose coreView study →. The α-configuration is what separates this series from the β-anomeric casuarictin series that gives sanguiin H-6, and it was novel at the time. The full structures, together with the related dimers agrimonic acids A and B, followed in 1984 as the first paper in the Tannins of Rosaceous Medicinal Plants series 2Reference 2Tannins of rosaceous medicinal plantsView study →. The name is botanical: it commemorates the genus it came out of.
Its identity as strawberry’s main ellagitannin came thirty years later, and as a correction. Although strawberry composition had been studied exhaustively, agrimoniin “had never been univocally identified as one of the most abundant phenolic compounds in the fruit”; the 2012 study isolated it from F. vesca, characterised it, established it as the main ellagitannin of both F. vesca and F. × ananassa, published the first full NMR assignments, and set out an HPLC protocol expressly to prevent further confusion with sanguiin H-6 3Reference 3Clarifying the identity of the main ellagitannin in the fruit of the strawberry, Fragaria vesca and Fragaria ananassa DuchView study →. A structurally adjacent strawberry ellagitannin of 2,038 Da — fragariin A, agrimoniin plus a gallic acid on the second glucose — was described in 2019 30Reference 30Structural elucidation of the ellagitannin with a molecular weight of 2038 isolated from strawberry fruit (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) and named fragariin AView study →.
No total synthesis of agrimoniin has been reported. The hardest piece, the dehydrodigalloyl linker, has been made: orthochloranil oxidation of galloyl monoethers gives reactive orthoquinones that dimerise under Lewis-acid catalysis to the dehydrodigalloyl diaryl ether “characteristic of several ellagitannin natural products” 49Reference 49Galloyl-derived orthoquinones as reactive partners in nucleophilic additions and Diels-Alder dimerizations — a novel route to the dehydrodigalloyl linker unit of agrimoniin-type ellagitanninsView study → — but the full dimer, with two macrocyclic glucose cores and four HHDP groups, has not been assembled. Supply is extraction only, and unusually good extraction: agrimoniin is obtained at ≥95-97% purity from Potentilla anserina herb or A. pilosa root by column chromatography 7,
Patents: not yet researched.
Toxicity & Safety
Agrimoniin carries a low flag, and it is one of the better-supported low flags in this class. It is the principal polyphenol of a major food crop, the marker constituent of two pharmacopoeial herbal drugs with long traditional use, and the one repeat-dose oral animal experiment that included healthy controls found agrimoniin at 100 mg/kg/day for 21 days indistinguishable from untreated animals 21Reference 21AnimalAgrimoniin, an active ellagitannin from Comarum palustre herb with anti-α-glucosidase and antidiabetic potential in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →. The cautions below are real, and two of them are hydrolysable-tannin class properties rather than anything specific to this molecule.
- Substantial dietary and herbal history. The main ellagitannin of strawberry, the marker compound of Agrimoniae herba and tormentil rhizome, consumed as food and as infusion with no signal of harm.
- A real oral tolerability observation. Healthy rats given 100 mg/kg/day for 21 days showed blood and weight parameters close to untreated controls.
- Poorly absorbed, which cuts both ways. The same barrier that blocks systemic efficacy blocks systemic toxicity.
- Inhibits CYP1A2, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 in human liver microsomes at IC₅₀ 6.3-9.4 µM — a genuine interaction flag on paper, though it assumes a plasma concentration nobody has ever measured.
- The antitumour immunostimulant results used injection. Intraperitoneal and intravenous tannin is a different exposure from a cup of tea, and nothing here supports parenteral use.
- Tannin astringency. Protein binding is the mechanism of its astringent and antimicrobial action; heavy tannin intake is markedly drying and can hinder iron, mineral and protein absorption.
- No isolate safety data in humans. No dose-ranging, no repeat-dose toxicology, no reproductive package, no interaction study in people.
Full Safety & Interactions Detail
The CYP finding, and how much weight it can bear. Agrimoniin inhibited CYP1A2, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 in pooled human liver microsomes in a dose-dependent manner, with IC₅₀ values of 6.26, 9.35 and 8.30 µM respectively; it was a non-competitive inhibitor of CYP3A4 and a competitive inhibitor of CYP1A2 and CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 inhibition was also time-dependent — the pattern associated with mechanism-based inhibition. The authors conclude that interactions with drugs metabolised by these isoforms “should be paid special attention” 48Reference 48In vitroAgrimoniin inhibits the activity of CYP1A2, 2D6 and 3A4 in human liver microsomes — in vitroView study →. Two things temper that. First, these are microsomes: the experiment presupposes that agrimoniin reaches hepatocytes, and no study has ever detected intact agrimoniin in blood. Second, large polyphenols inhibit microsomal enzymes fairly promiscuously, and the accompanying serum-binding result 24Reference 24AnimalAntitumor effect of agrimoniin, a tannin of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb., on transplantable rodent tumors — mouse studyView study → suggests much of the compound would be protein-bound anyway. Treat it as a reason to be careful with concentrated tormentil or agrimony extracts alongside narrow-therapeutic-index CYP3A4 substrates, not as an established clinical interaction. It has not been tested in an animal, let alone a person.
Tannin-class effects. As a large hydrolysable tannin, agrimoniin binds and precipitates proteins — the basis of its astringency, of the traditional antidiarrhoeal and haemostatic use of agrimony and tormentil, and of the antibacterial activity above. The general tannin cautions apply to concentrated preparations: pronounced dryness and puckering, potential interference with non-haem iron and other mineral absorption, and reduced protein availability at high intakes. These are class properties and have not been quantified for this molecule. Its documented iron chelation 35,
Immunostimulation is not automatically benign. The most striking finding here is that agrimoniin raises immune activity — IL-1β induction, NK activation, monocytosis, splenomegaly 24,
Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity context. No genotoxicity study of purified agrimoniin has been published. The cytotoxicity results are all in cancer lines; where a selectivity index against normal cells was measured, it was for Potentilla extracts rather than the isolate, and it favoured selectivity (LS180 colon cancer IC₅₀ 38 µg/mL vs. normal CCD841 CoN 1,134 µg/mL for the best extract), with the extracts described as not cytotoxic to normal colon epithelial cells 39,
Reproductive note. There is no reproductive or developmental toxicity dataset for isolated agrimoniin. Agrimony, tormentil and strawberry leaf each have their own traditional-use literature; pregnancy and lactation decisions belong to those herb monographs, where intake is actually decided, not to a molecule page.
Dosage
There is no dose. Agrimoniin is not sold as a supplement, has never been given to a person as a purified compound in a trial, and has no established human dose. What exists is dietary, herbal and research exposure — and the gap between the food figure and the herb figure is the striking thing:
| Context | Form | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh strawberries (100 g) | whole fruit | ~3-9 mg agrimoniin 8Reference 8Major-effect candidate genes identified in cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) for ellagic acid deoxyhexoside and pelargonidin-3-O-malonylglucoside biosynthesisView study → |
| Strawberry leaf tea (2 g dried leaf) | infusion | ~60-160 mg present in the material 7Reference 7Fragaria × ananassa cvView study → |
| Agrimony herb (2 g, Ph. Eur. A. eupatoria) | infusion | ~5-11 mg present in the material 12Reference 12Development and validation of an HPLC-DAD-CAD-MS³ method for qualitative and quantitative standardization of polyphenols in Agrimoniae eupatoriae herba (PhView study → |
| Fragrant agrimony (2 g dried leaf) | infusion | ~32-43 mg present in the material 10Reference 10The aerial parts of Agrimonia procera Wallr. and Agrimonia eupatoria L. as a source of polyphenols, and especially agrimoniin and flavonoidsView study → |
| Tormentil rhizome (2 g) | decoction / tincture | ~50 mg present in the material 13Reference 13Quantification of tannins and related polyphenols in commercial products of tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla)View study → |
| Rodent studies, oral | purified isolate | 3-8 mg/kg/day (rat, hepatopulmonary syndrome) 29Reference 29AnimalAgrimoniin ameliorates intrapulmonary angiogenesis and improves hypoxemia in hepatopulmonary syndrome via PGC-1α activation — rat studyView study →; 100 mg/kg/day × 21 days (rat, diabetes) 21Reference 21AnimalAgrimoniin, an active ellagitannin from Comarum palustre herb with anti-α-glucosidase and antidiabetic potential in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study → |
| Rodent studies, injected | purified isolate | 10 mg/kg intraperitoneally (mouse, tumour models) 24, |
| Cell culture | purified isolate | typically 1-50 µM — luminal, not plasma, concentrations 16, |
The infusion figures are content of the dry material, not extraction yield — how much of a 1,871 Da tannin actually crosses into hot water in ten minutes has not been measured for these herbs, and infusions of A. asiatica extract less than decoctions on the α-glucosidase readout 38Reference 38Phenolome of Asian agrimony tea (Agrimonia asiatica Juz., Rosaceae) — LC-MS profile, α-glucosidase inhibitory potential and stabilityView study →. Content also varies severalfold with species, plant part, developmental stage and harvest year 7,
References
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- Okuda T, Yoshida T, Kuwahara M, Memon MU, Shingu T (1984). Tannins of rosaceous medicinal plants. I. Structures of potentillin, agrimonic acids A and B, and agrimoniin, a dimeric ellagitannin. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 32(6), 2165–2173. https://doi.org/10.1248/cpb.32.2165
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