Syringin

Syringin at a Glance

Syringin is a naturally occurring phenylpropanoid glucoside — the monolignol sinapyl alcohol carrying a single glucose on its 4-position phenolic oxygen (hence sinapyl alcohol 4-O-glucoside). It was first known as a constituent of lilac (Syringa), which gave it both of its older names, syringin and lilacin.

Its most consequential identity, though, is under a second name: syringin is eleutheroside B, one of the two marker compounds used to standardise eleuthero (Siberian ginseng, Eleutherococcus senticosus), the classic adaptogen. The same molecule also appears as a trace marker in codonopsis and across other Araliaceae. That marker status is the single biggest source of confusion about it.

Eleuthero’s human reputation — anti-fatigue, stress resistance, immune support — rests on the whole standardised extract, a mixture of eleutherosides, caffeoylquinic acids, polysaccharides and other constituents ^{10Reference 10Panossian A · 2009Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activityView study →}. Syringin the isolate has never been shown to reproduce that adaptogen effect on its own. What the isolate does have is a coherent, entirely preclinical signature: anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory NF-κB suppression ^{1,2,3Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →Reference 2Dong H et al. · 2021Total syntheses and anti-inflammatory activities of syringin and its natural analoguesView study →Reference 3Zhang H et al. · 2020Syringin protects against colitis by ameliorating inflammationView study →}, antinociceptive activity ^{1Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →}, and an insulin-independent antihyperglycemic effect via adrenal β-endorphin release ^{5,6Reference 5Niu HS et al. · 2007AnimalIncrease of beta-endorphin secretion by syringin, an active principle of Eleutherococcus senticosus, to produce antihyperglycemic action in type 1-like diabetic ratsView study →Reference 6Niu HS et al. · 2008AnimalHypoglycemic effect of syringin from Eleutherococcus senticosus in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →}. Read those as mechanistic promise, not established human benefit — and note that as a glucoside it is poorly absorbed orally.

Syringin Is Eleutheroside B

The single most useful thing to understand about this molecule is that “syringin” and “eleutheroside B” are two names for one compound. They come from two different naming traditions:

• Syringin (and the older synonym lilacin) is the chemical/botanical name, coined from Syringa, the lilac genus in which the glucoside was first found. Chemically it is sinapyl alcohol 4-O-β-D-glucoside.
• Eleutheroside B is the eleuthero-marker name — part of the “eleutheroside” series (A–M) assigned to the characteristic constituents isolated from Eleutherococcus senticosus root. Eleutheroside B was simply the eleuthero series’ label for syringin.

There is no chemical difference between them: the eleutheroside-B isolated from eleuthero root and the syringin isolated from lilac or magnolia are the identical phenylpropanoid glucoside. This page is the canonical entry for both names — literature published under either “syringin” or “eleutheroside B” describes the same molecule and is pooled here.

One nearby distinction is worth keeping straight, because the sibling names invite it: eleutheroside B (syringin) is not eleutheroside E. Eleutheroside E is syringaresinol diglucoside — a furofuran lignan, a fused dimer of two sinapyl-alcohol units — whereas syringin is the monolignol glucoside. The two are chemical kin (both built from sinapyl alcohol) and are the pharmacopoeial marker pair for eleuthero, but they are different compounds with different skeletons.

A Phenylpropanoid Glucoside

Structurally, syringin sits in the monolignol family. Its aglycone, sinapyl alcohol, is one of the three canonical monolignols — the phenylpropanoid building blocks that polymerise into lignin (sinapyl alcohol supplies the syringyl units). Syringin is that monolignol “parked” as a water-soluble, storable glucoside, which is how plants transport and stockpile monolignols.

Two consequences follow, and they matter for reading the pharmacology:

• It is hydrolysed to sinapyl alcohol. Removing the glucose (by gut β-glucosidases or plant enzymes) yields free sinapyl alcohol, which can be further oxidised to sinapaldehyde and is closely related to sinapic acid (the carboxylic-acid form of the same C₆–C₃ syringyl skeleton) and, more distantly, to caffeic acid. In the one head-to-head isolate study, the aglycone sinapyl alcohol was markedly more potent than syringin itself at anti-inflammatory and analgesic endpoints ^{1Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →} — a hint that some of syringin’s activity may be delivered by what it releases rather than by the intact glucoside.
• Two sinapyl alcohols make syringaresinol. Oxidative coupling of two sinapyl-alcohol units gives the furofuran lignan syringaresinol — i.e. eleutheroside E’s aglycone. Syringin and eleutheroside E are therefore biosynthetic cousins drawn from the same monolignol pool, which is part of why they co-occur as the eleuthero marker pair.

The Eleuthero & Codonopsis Marker

Syringin’s practical importance is as a quality-control marker. In eleuthero, the two pharmacopoeial markers are eleutheroside B (syringin) and eleutheroside E (the syringaresinol diglucoside): the European Pharmacopoeia standardises dried eleuthero root to a minimum of 0.08% for the sum of eleutherosides B and E, and syringin itself runs at roughly 0.01–0.04% of the dried root, varying several-fold with growing region ^{9Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →}. Syringin is specifically valued as a marker for discriminating eleuthero from adulterant Araliaceae, and it recurs as a trace phenylpropanoid marker in codonopsis root and across Acanthopanax (a synonymy under which much “eleuthero” pharmacology is published) ^{9Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →}.

Two cautions are the point of this section:

• Marker ≠ active agent. Standardising an extract to eleutheroside B does not make syringin the thing responsible for eleuthero’s effect. The adaptogenic, anti-fatigue and stress-resistance actions are properties of the whole extract; the marker is how you verify you have genuine eleuthero at a known strength ^{9,10Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →Reference 10Panossian A · 2009Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activityView study →}. Reviews of adaptogen mechanism describe HPA-axis regulation and Hsp70 signalling for the herb class without attributing them to syringin as an isolate ^{10Reference 10Panossian A · 2009Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activityView study →}.
• The isolate has its own (still preclinical) data. Separately from its marker role, purified syringin/eleutheroside B has been studied directly — anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antihyperglycemic, neuroprotective and anticancer effects, all in cells or animals ^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →Reference 2Dong H et al. · 2021Total syntheses and anti-inflammatory activities of syringin and its natural analoguesView study →Reference 3Zhang H et al. · 2020Syringin protects against colitis by ameliorating inflammationView study →Reference 4Wu S et al. · 2026Eleutheroside B alleviates LPS-induced depressive-like behaviors by suppressing the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway in the dentate gyrusView study →Reference 5Niu HS et al. · 2007AnimalIncrease of beta-endorphin secretion by syringin, an active principle of Eleutherococcus senticosus, to produce antihyperglycemic action in type 1-like diabetic ratsView study →Reference 6Niu HS et al. · 2008AnimalHypoglycemic effect of syringin from Eleutherococcus senticosus in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →Reference 7Parzonko A et al. · 2025In vitroSyringin (sinapyl alcohol 4-O-glucoside) improves the wound healing capacity of fibroblasts and keratinocytes in vitroView study →Reference 8Wang F et al. · 2022Syringin exerts anti-breast cancer effects through PI3K-AKT and EGFR-RAS-RAF pathwaysView study →}. Those results belong to the isolated molecule and should not be silently transferred to a cup of eleuthero decoction, nor read as the mechanism of the adaptogen extract.

What It's Used For

The isolate literature is preclinical throughout — cell and animal work, with no human trials of the pure compound. It clusters around an anti-inflammatory / immunomodulatory core, with antinociceptive, metabolic and neuro threads attached.

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 isolate preclinical (no human data), so scores stay low by design. Each application links to its write-up.

01Anti-Inflammatory / ImmunomodulatoryPromising46%Isolate in vitro + several animal models (NF-κB / Nrf2) ^{1,2,3Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →Reference 2Dong H et al. · 2021Total syntheses and anti-inflammatory activities of syringin and its natural analoguesView study →Reference 3Zhang H et al. · 2020Syringin protects against colitis by ameliorating inflammationView study →}

02AntihyperglycemicShaky38%Two in-vivo rat studies; adrenal β-endorphin / μ-opioid mechanism ^{5,6Reference 5Niu HS et al. · 2007AnimalIncrease of beta-endorphin secretion by syringin, an active principle of Eleutherococcus senticosus, to produce antihyperglycemic action in type 1-like diabetic ratsView study →Reference 6Niu HS et al. · 2008AnimalHypoglycemic effect of syringin from Eleutherococcus senticosus in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ratsView study →}

03Neuroinflammation / AntidepressantShaky36%One in-vivo mouse model; TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB in dentate gyrus ^{4Reference 4Wu S et al. · 2026Eleutheroside B alleviates LPS-induced depressive-like behaviors by suppressing the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway in the dentate gyrusView study →}

04AntinociceptiveShaky32%Rodent writhing / hot-plate; aglycone more potent than glucoside ^{1Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →}

05Wound HealingShaky28%Human fibroblast/keratinocyte cell work; TGFβ / Smad2/3 ^{7Reference 7Parzonko A et al. · 2025In vitroSyringin (sinapyl alcohol 4-O-glucoside) improves the wound healing capacity of fibroblasts and keratinocytes in vitroView study →}

06Anticancer / CytotoxicShaky22%Network-pharmacology + in-vitro breast-cancer lines ^{8Reference 8Wang F et al. · 2022Syringin exerts anti-breast cancer effects through PI3K-AKT and EGFR-RAS-RAF pathwaysView study →}

Mechanisms

The load-bearing observation is that most of syringin’s effects converge on NF-κB-driven inflammation — in macrophages, gut epithelium and hippocampal microglia alike — a coherent anti-inflammatory rationale, but one demonstrated only in cells and animals and partly attributable to the released aglycone.

Pharmacokinetics

Human pharmacokinetics of syringin are essentially uncharacterised, and the little that is known frames the central caveat: it is a glucoside with poor oral bioavailability. Like other monolignol/phenylpropanoid glucosides it must be deglycosylated by intestinal or microbial β-glucosidases before the lipophilic aglycone (sinapyl alcohol) is efficiently absorbed, so an oral dose is substantially transformed before it acts systemically. This deglycosylation is not a footnote: in direct comparison the aglycone was more pharmacologically potent than the intact glucoside ^{1Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →}, meaning syringin may function partly as a pro-drug delivery form. The rodent antihyperglycemic work that shows the cleanest effect used intravenous dosing ^{5Reference 5Niu HS et al. · 2007AnimalIncrease of beta-endorphin secretion by syringin, an active principle of Eleutherococcus senticosus, to produce antihyperglycemic action in type 1-like diabetic ratsView study →}, which bypasses the absorption problem entirely. No human oral-bioavailability figure, Cmax, half-life or active-metabolite profile has been established for syringin.

Clinical Trials

There are no clinical trials of isolated syringin / eleutheroside B for any indication. The human evidence often invoked alongside it belongs to whole eleuthero extract standardised to the eleutheroside B + E marker pair — a different, multi-component product — not to this molecule ^{9,10Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →Reference 10Panossian A · 2009Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activityView study →}. Every application above is cell or animal work.

Last checked: July 2026.

Isolate vs. Plant Studies

This molecule shows the clean split familiar from its marker-pair sibling syringaresinol. The mechanistic work is genuine isolate science — purified or synthetic syringin in defined cell and animal models ^{1,2,3,5Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →Reference 2Dong H et al. · 2021Total syntheses and anti-inflammatory activities of syringin and its natural analoguesView study →Reference 3Zhang H et al. · 2020Syringin protects against colitis by ameliorating inflammationView study →Reference 5Niu HS et al. · 2007AnimalIncrease of beta-endorphin secretion by syringin, an active principle of Eleutherococcus senticosus, to produce antihyperglycemic action in type 1-like diabetic ratsView study →} — which is a strength for understanding how it acts. But the human, real-world evidence is all plant/extract: eleuthero’s anti-fatigue and stress-resistance data test the standardised whole root extract, within which syringin appears only as the eleutheroside B marker, at marker-level (~0.01–0.04%) quantities ^{9,10Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →Reference 10Panossian A · 2009Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activityView study →}. The gap between “the isolate does X to a cell or an insulin-deficient rat” and “eleuthero helps a person” is therefore wide and unbridged. The point is sharpened by pharmacokinetics: because syringin is poorly absorbed and its aglycone is the more potent species ^{1Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →}, even the isolate results may not transfer to an oral marker dose. In codonopsis and other Araliaceae it is likewise a trace co-occurring marker carrying no species-specific standalone finding. Treat every isolate result as a hypothesis about the plant, not proof of it.

Prevalence in Nature

Syringin is a widely distributed but usually minor phenylpropanoid glucoside, stored (like other monolignols) as the water-soluble glucoside rather than the free aglycone. Its signature concentrated form is as eleutheroside B in eleuthero root, where it and eleutheroside E (syringaresinol diglucoside) are the pharmacopoeial marker pair; syringin content runs at roughly 0.01–0.04% of the dried root, several-fold variable with growing region and often published under the synonym Acanthopanax senticosus ^{9Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →}. It was first characterised from lilac (Syringa) — the origin of the names syringin and lilacin — and also occurs in the stem bark of Magnolia sieboldii ^{1Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →}, in jasmine (Jasminum mesnyi), as a trace marker in codonopsis root, and across numerous other genera. Precise per-source concentrations beyond eleuthero root are largely un-pinned and live in this compound’s gaps tracker.

Discovery & Synthesis

Syringin was first known as a glucoside of lilac (Syringa), from which both of its early names — syringin and lilacin — derive; its aglycone, sinapyl alcohol, is one of the classical monolignols of lignin chemistry. Its second, marker-driven identity came through Eleutherococcus phytochemistry, where the same compound was catalogued as eleutheroside B, one of the eleutheroside series used to standardise eleuthero root ^{9Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →}. Because it is a simple monolignol glucoside, syringin is readily obtained by extraction/isolation from plant material (eleuthero, lilac, magnolia and others), and this remains the usual research-grade source. A modern total synthesis — glucosylation of a sinapyl-alcohol-type aglycone — has also been reported and used to confirm that the anti-inflammatory activity belongs to the pure synthetic molecule rather than to any plant-extract co-constituent ^{2Reference 2Dong H et al. · 2021Total syntheses and anti-inflammatory activities of syringin and its natural analoguesView study →}.

Patents: not yet researched.

Toxicity & Safety

Syringin carries a low toxicity flag. It is a widely-consumed dietary phenylpropanoid glucoside present at marker-level (sub-percent) amounts in eleuthero and other foods/herbs, with no isolate cytotoxicity or organ-toxicity signal in the available preclinical work and poor oral bioavailability that further limits systemic exposure. There is no dedicated human safety, repeat-dose or reproductive-toxicity dataset for the isolate, so the caveats below are precautionary rather than established harms.

Safety at a Glance

✅ Low / no toxicity

• Dietary glucoside at marker-level exposure. Human intake is small and indirect — chiefly the eleutheroside B marker within standardised eleuthero — with no isolate toxicity signal reported.
• Poor oral bioavailability limits systemic dose. As a glucoside it is largely deglycosylated in the gut, so intact-syringin exposure from an oral dose is low.
• Immunomodulatory / immunostimulant theory. Syringin suppresses NF-κB inflammatory signalling in several models ^{1,3,4Reference 1Choi J et al. · 2004Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringinView study →Reference 3Zhang H et al. · 2020Syringin protects against colitis by ameliorating inflammationView study →Reference 4Wu S et al. · 2026Eleutheroside B alleviates LPS-induced depressive-like behaviors by suppressing the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway in the dentate gyrusView study →}; the parent herb eleuthero carries a class caution around immunostimulation and autoimmune/immunosuppressant contexts — a theoretical, unstudied consideration for the isolate.
• No human safety, PK or interaction data for the isolate. CYP/transporter interactions are uncharacterised; absence of evidence is not evidence of safety.

Pregnancy and lactation decisions belong to the eleuthero herb page and any supplement page — where intake is actually decided — not to this molecule page. No isolate-specific reproductive dataset exists for syringin, and no verdict is issued here.

Dosage

There is no established human dose for isolated syringin / eleutheroside B, and nothing here is a recommendation — the figures are the preclinical research doses behind the sections above:

Human exposure in practice is indirect and small — as the eleutheroside B marker within eleuthero preparations standardised to the eleutheroside B + E pair (European Pharmacopoeia: ≥0.08% B+E in dried root), not as the free isolate ^{9Reference 9Patyra A et al. · 2025ReviewEleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effectView study →}. These are doses studied in research and are not a personal recommendation.

References

1. Choi J, Shin KM, Park HJ, et al. (2004). Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of sinapyl alcohol and its glucoside syringin. Planta Medica. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15549657/
2. Dong H, Wu M, Wang Y, Du W, He Y, Shi Z (2021). Total syntheses and anti-inflammatory activities of syringin and its natural analogues. Journal of Natural Products. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34658231/
3. Zhang H, Gu H, Jia Q, et al. (2020). Syringin protects against colitis by ameliorating inflammation. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31899146/
4. Wu S, Jiang Y, Zhai C, et al. (2026). Eleutheroside B alleviates LPS-induced depressive-like behaviors by suppressing the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway in the dentate gyrus. International Immunopharmacology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42044574/
5. Niu HS, Hsu FL, Liu IM, Cheng JT (2007). Increase of beta-endorphin secretion by syringin, an active principle of Eleutherococcus senticosus, to produce antihyperglycemic action in type 1-like diabetic rats. Hormone and Metabolic Research. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18075969/
6. Niu HS, Liu IM, Cheng JT, Lin CL, Hsu FL (2008). Hypoglycemic effect of syringin from Eleutherococcus senticosus in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Planta Medica. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18203055/
7. Parzonko A, Filipek A, Równicki M, Kiss AK (2025). Syringin (sinapyl alcohol 4-O-glucoside) improves the wound healing capacity of fibroblasts and keratinocytes in vitro. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40869145/
8. Wang F, Yuan C, Liu B, Yang YF, Wu HZ (2022). Syringin exerts anti-breast cancer effects through PI3K-AKT and EGFR-RAS-RAF pathways. Journal of Translational Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35794555/
9. Patyra A, Kołtun-Jasion M, Kupniewska K, Parzonko A, Kiss AK (2025). Eleutherococcus senticosus root: a comprehensive review of its phytochemistry and pharmacological potential in the context of its adaptogenic effect. Frontiers in Pharmacology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41235111/
10. Panossian A, Wikman G (2009). Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activity. Current Clinical Pharmacology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19500070/

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