Akebia trifoliata

Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz. var. australis (Diels) Rehd., is a woody climbing vine, that is widespread throughout Asia, especially in China, Korea and Japan.  It is a traditional medicinal herb in both Japanese and Chinese medicine with the properties of improving blood flow and circulation generally, reducing inflammation and helping in kidney function especially diuresis.  The dried leaves are used as a tea and the fruits can be juiced, sugared or turned into a vinegar. The actives are the triterpenes and triterpene saponins which are found in most parts of the vine (stem, leaves, seeds & fruit pericarp) (Liu et al., 2007; Jiang et al., 2008; Kitaoka et al., 2009) and possibly the lignin glycosides (Guan et al., 2007). There is plenty of opportunity to extract a pectin from the waste peel which comprises 60% of of the fruit and might be used as an alternative to citrus or apple pectin (Jiang et al., 2012).

Guan, S.-H., Xia, J.-M., Lu, Z.-Q., Chen, G.-T., Jiang, B.-H., Liu, X., et al. (2007). Structure elucidation and NMR spectral assignments of three new lignan glycosides from Akebia trifoliata. Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 46, pp. 186–190.

Jiang, Y., Du, Y., Zhu, X., Xiong, H., Woo, M.W., Hu, J. (2012) Physicochemical and comparative properties of pectins extracted from Akebia trifoliata var. australis peel. Carbohydrate Polym. 87 pp. 1663-1669

Jiang, D., Shi, S.-P., Cao, J.-J., Gao, Q.-P. & Tu, P.-F. (2008). Triterpene saponins from the fruits of Akebia quinata. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, 36, pp. 138–141.

Kitaoka, F., Kakiuchi, N., Long, C., Itoga, M., Yoshimatsu, H., Mitsue, A., et al. (2009). Difference of ITS sequences of Akebia plants growing in various parts of Japan. J. Natural Medicines, 63, pp. 368–374.

Liu, G.-Y., Ma, S.-C., Zheng, J., Zhang, J. & Lin, R.-C. (2007). Two new triterpenoid saponins from Akebia quinata (Thunb.) Decne.  J. Integrative Plant Biology, 49, pp. 196–201.