Cirsimaritin

Cirsimaritin at a Glance

Cirsimaritin is a methylated flavone — chemically 4’,5-dihydroxy-6,7-dimethoxyflavone. Structurally it is the 6,7-dimethyl ether of scutellarein, which in turn is a hydroxylated relative of the common flavone apigenin. The two methoxy groups make it more lipophilic and less water-soluble than an unmethylated flavone, a fact that colours everything below.

It occurs as a minor constituent of several aromatic herbs — sage, thyme and rosemary among the mints, and thistles (Cirsium) among the daisies — as well as Teucrium, Artemisia and the oak-relative Lithocarpus ^{1Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →}. It has never been a headline compound in any of them, but it recurs often enough to have attracted a modest research literature of its own.

That literature is entirely preclinical. The most developed thread is antidiabetic — a genuinely multi-target signal spanning DPP-4 inhibition, AMPK/GLUT4 activation and improved hepatic insulin sensitivity — alongside anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, anticancer and antimicrobial work. No human study has been performed, and there is no pharmacokinetic data, so every potency figure below is an in-vitro or animal result of unknown clinical relevance.

Cirsimaritin, Scutellarein & Apigenin

Cirsimaritin belongs to a small family of closely related flavones, and its behaviour is easier to read against them:

• Apigenin — 4’,5,7-trihydroxyflavone, the widespread parent flavone.
• Scutellarein — apigenin with an extra hydroxyl at C-6 (6-hydroxyapigenin).
• Cirsimaritin — scutellarein with the 6- and 7-hydroxyls both capped as methyl ethers (hence “scutellarein 6,7-dimethyl ether”).

That methylation is the whole story of what makes cirsimaritin distinct. Capping two hydroxyls with methyl groups increases lipophilicity and membrane permeability but removes two of the sites that a phenolic uses for direct radical-scavenging, which is why cirsimaritin’s antioxidant results are weak and inconsistent while its cell-signalling and enzyme-binding effects are comparatively stronger ^{1Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →}. It sits in the same methylated-flavone niche as its batch-mates chrysoeriol, diosmetin and acacetin.

What It's Used For

Cirsimaritin’s evidence is a spread of in-vitro and rodent findings across metabolic, inflammatory, neurological and oncology models. The through-line is that it modulates several signalling and enzyme targets at micromolar concentrations in cells — but with no absorption data to say whether those concentrations are reachable in a living animal, let alone a person.

Evidence by IndicationStrength of support · Beta

Support is an experimental score — weighted by study type (human > animal > in vitro) and volume. A beta, not a validated metric. Every row here is preclinical, so scores are capped low and read the per-row basis.

01Antidiabetic / Glycaemic ControlPromising46%DPP-4 inhibition + AMPK/GLUT4 rat model + hepatocyte insulin-sensitising ^{2,3,4Reference 2Alqudah A et al. · 2023The Emerging Importance of Cirsimaritin in Type 2 Diabetes TreatmentView study →Reference 3Bower AM et al. · 2014Bioactive compounds from culinary herbs inhibit a molecular target for type 2 diabetes management, dipeptidyl peptidase IVView study →Reference 4Xu JH et al. · 2020AnimalIdentification of Bioactive Components from Ruellia tuberosa L. on Improving Glucose Uptake in TNF-α-Induced Insulin-Resistant Mouse FL83B HepatocytesView study →}

02Anti-InflammatoryShaky40%LPS-macrophage NF-κB/STAT3 suppression, in vitro ^{5Reference 5Shin MS et al. · 2017Anti-inflammatory effects and corresponding mechanisms of cirsimaritin extracted from Cirsium japonicum var. maackii MaximView study →}

03Anxiolytic & Antinociceptive (CNS)Shaky36%Mouse behavioural models, GABA-A mediated ^{6Reference 6Abdelhalim A et al. · 2015Antidepressant, Anxiolytic and Antinociceptive Activities of Constituents from Rosmarinus officinalisView study →}

04Anticancer (Cytotoxic / Pro-Apoptotic)Shaky32%Apoptosis in cultured cancer cell lines ^{1,7Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →Reference 7Szoka L et al. · 2021Santin and cirsimaritin from Betula pubescens and Betula pendula buds induce apoptosis in human digestive system cancer cellsView study →}

05Antimicrobial & AntiparasiticShaky28%In-vitro MIC/IC50 assays vs. bacteria, fungi, protozoa ^{1,8,9Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →Reference 8Tasdemir D et al. · 2006In vitroAntitrypanosomal and antileishmanial activities of flavonoids and their analogues: in vitro, in vivo, structure-activity relationship, and QSAR studiesView study →Reference 9Ngolo LM et al. · 2025Phytochemical screening, UPLC analysis, evaluation of synergistic antioxidant and antibacterial efficacy of three medicinal plants used in Kinshasa, D.RView study →}

Mechanisms

The DPP-4 plus AMPK/GLUT4 combination is the load-bearing point — it is what makes the antidiabetic thread more than a single in-vitro hit. The recurring NF-κB target ties the anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antiviral results together mechanistically.

Pharmacokinetics

This is the page’s biggest hole, and it is not a small one. No pharmacokinetic study of cirsimaritin has been published — absorption, oral bioavailability, distribution, metabolism, active metabolites and half-life are all uncharacterised, and reviews of the compound explicitly call for this work to be done ^{1Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →}. What can be said structurally is that cirsimaritin is a dimethoxy flavone with low water solubility, a chemotype that typically shows poor oral bioavailability. Until absorption is measured, the micromolar potencies in the sections above cannot be assumed to be reachable in vivo, and this caveat sits under every claim on the page.

Clinical Trials

There are no clinical trials of cirsimaritin — no completed, ongoing or terminated human studies. The entire evidence base is cell-culture and rodent work.

Last checked: July 2026.

Isolate vs. Plant Studies

Cirsimaritin’s literature is a mix of true isolate studies and whole-extract screens, and the distinction matters. The antidiabetic rat model ^{2Reference 2Alqudah A et al. · 2023The Emerging Importance of Cirsimaritin in Type 2 Diabetes TreatmentView study →} and the mouse CNS study ^{6Reference 6Abdelhalim A et al. · 2015Antidepressant, Anxiolytic and Antinociceptive Activities of Constituents from Rosmarinus officinalisView study →} used the purified compound, which is a strength — they show the molecule itself carries activity. The anti-inflammatory ^{5Reference 5Shin MS et al. · 2017Anti-inflammatory effects and corresponding mechanisms of cirsimaritin extracted from Cirsium japonicum var. maackii MaximView study →} and anticancer ^{7Reference 7Szoka L et al. · 2021Santin and cirsimaritin from Betula pubescens and Betula pendula buds induce apoptosis in human digestive system cancer cellsView study →} work also used isolated cirsimaritin (from Cirsium and Betula respectively). By contrast, several metabolic and antimicrobial findings come from crude Teucrium, Salvia or Artemisia extracts in which cirsimaritin is one flavone among many ^{9,10Reference 9Ngolo LM et al. · 2025Phytochemical screening, UPLC analysis, evaluation of synergistic antioxidant and antibacterial efficacy of three medicinal plants used in Kinshasa, D.RView study →Reference 10Stefkov G et al. · 2011AnimalEffects of Teucrium polium spp. capitatum flavonoids on the lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in ratsView study →} — there, its individual contribution is inferred rather than demonstrated. In no case has a human received either the isolate or a standardised cirsimaritin-bearing extract for a measured outcome, so the transferability question is entirely open.

Prevalence in Nature

Cirsimaritin is a widely-but-thinly distributed flavone, reported from more than fifty species across the mint (Lamiaceae) and daisy (Asteraceae) families and beyond ^{1Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →}. Among culinary and medicinal herbs it occurs in sage (Salvia officinalis), thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis); among the daisies it is a marker of thistles (Cirsium spp.) — the genus it was first isolated from and the source of its name (Cirsium + the “-maritin” of the source species). It is also documented in yerba santa (Eriodictyon), Teucrium polium, several Artemisia species (A. judaica, A. annua, A. capillaris), Ocimum sanctum (holy basil), birch (Betula) buds, and the oak-relative Lithocarpus dealbatus ^{1Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →}.

Across these sources the concentrations are rarely quantified — cirsimaritin is almost always reported qualitatively as “present” in a flavonoid profile rather than measured as a percentage of dry weight. That absence of quantified occurrence data is itself a notable gap for a compound with this breadth of distribution.

Discovery & Synthesis

Cirsimaritin was first isolated in 1963 by the Japanese chemists Morita and Shimizu from a Cirsium (thistle) species, which supplies the compound’s name ^{1Reference 1Benali T et al. · 2022The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of CirsimaritinView study →}. Its structure — the 6,7-dimethyl ether of scutellarein — places it firmly in the methylated-flavone series, and it can be prepared synthetically by methylating scutellarein or by building the flavone skeleton and installing the two methoxy groups.

Manufacture today is overwhelmingly by extraction and isolation from plant material (sage, thyme, rosemary, Cirsium and Artemisia are common sources) for research and reference-standard supply, rather than by industrial total synthesis — there is no bulk commercial demand for the pure compound. No large-scale production or sustainability story attaches to it.

Patents: not yet researched.

Toxicity & Safety

Cirsimaritin carries a low toxicity flag. It is a dietary flavone of common culinary herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary), so ordinary food and tea exposure is unremarkable, and the mouse behavioural study reported no signs of acute toxicity at oral doses up to 200 mg/kg ^{6Reference 6Abdelhalim A et al. · 2015Antidepressant, Anxiolytic and Antinociceptive Activities of Constituents from Rosmarinus officinalisView study →}. That said, “low toxicity” here rests largely on absence of evidence of harm, not on a completed safety package — there are no repeat-dose, genotoxicity or reproductive-toxicity studies of the isolate, and no human safety data at all.

Safety at a Glance

✅ Low / no toxicity

• Dietary flavone of common herbs. Present in sage, thyme and rosemary; ordinary culinary and tea exposure is not a concern.
• No acute toxicity in animals. Oral doses up to 200 mg/kg produced no acute toxicity signs in mice ^{6Reference 6Abdelhalim A et al. · 2015Antidepressant, Anxiolytic and Antinociceptive Activities of Constituents from Rosmarinus officinalisView study →}.
• Preclinical only — no human data. Every efficacy and safety finding is from cells or rodents; nothing has been tested in people.
• Interactions not studied. Given the DPP-4/AMPK antidiabetic signal, a theoretical additive effect with glucose-lowering drugs is plausible but unstudied; no CYP/transporter interaction work exists.

Reproductive and developmental toxicity of isolated cirsimaritin has not been characterised. Any pregnancy or lactation decision belongs to the specific herb or product a person is actually taking (where sage, for instance, carries its own thujone-related cautions), not to this molecule-level page.

Dosage

There is no established human dose for cirsimaritin, and none should be inferred from the preclinical figures. For orientation only, the doses used in animal research were roughly 50 mg/kg orally in the diabetic-rat model ^{2Reference 2Alqudah A et al. · 2023The Emerging Importance of Cirsimaritin in Type 2 Diabetes TreatmentView study →} and 50–200 mg/kg in the mouse CNS study ^{6Reference 6Abdelhalim A et al. · 2015Antidepressant, Anxiolytic and Antinociceptive Activities of Constituents from Rosmarinus officinalisView study →}; these per-kilogram animal doses do not convert directly into a human dose. Dietary intake from herbs and teas is small and unquantified. These are research figures, not a personal recommendation.

References

1. Benali T, Jaouadi I, Ghchime R, et al. (2022). The Current State of Knowledge in Biological Properties of Cirsimaritin. Antioxidants. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36139916/
2. Alqudah A, et al. (2023). The Emerging Importance of Cirsimaritin in Type 2 Diabetes Treatment. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36982822/
3. Bower AM, et al. (2014). Bioactive compounds from culinary herbs inhibit a molecular target for type 2 diabetes management, dipeptidyl peptidase IV. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24881464/
4. Xu JH, et al. (2020). Identification of Bioactive Components from Ruellia tuberosa L. on Improving Glucose Uptake in TNF-α-Induced Insulin-Resistant Mouse FL83B Hepatocytes. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33335557/
5. Shin MS, et al. (2017). Anti-inflammatory effects and corresponding mechanisms of cirsimaritin extracted from Cirsium japonicum var. maackii Maxim. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554870/
6. Abdelhalim A, et al. (2015). Antidepressant, Anxiolytic and Antinociceptive Activities of Constituents from Rosmarinus officinalis. Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26626245/
7. Szoka L, et al. (2021). Santin and cirsimaritin from Betula pubescens and Betula pendula buds induce apoptosis in human digestive system cancer cells. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34755444/
8. Tasdemir D, et al. (2006). Antitrypanosomal and antileishmanial activities of flavonoids and their analogues: in vitro, in vivo, structure-activity relationship, and QSAR studies. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16569852/
9. Ngolo LM, et al. (2025). Phytochemical screening, UPLC analysis, evaluation of synergistic antioxidant and antibacterial efficacy of three medicinal plants used in Kinshasa, D.R. Congo. Scientific Reports. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40128309/
10. Stefkov G, et al. (2011). Effects of Teucrium polium spp. capitatum flavonoids on the lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in rats. Pharmaceutical Biology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21619454/
11. Yan H, et al. (2018). Cirsimaritin inhibits influenza A virus replication by downregulating the NF-κB signal transduction pathway. Virology Journal. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29783993/

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