Scutellarin is a flavone that has been found in S. barbata and has diverse biological activities, including anticancer, lipid lowering, antioxidative, and neurocognitive properties. It inhibits proliferation of PC-9 and H1975 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in a concentration-dependent manner and induces apoptosis and autophagy when used at a concentration of 160 μM, effects that can be blocked by the autophagy inhibitor HCQ . Scutellarin (30 and 60 mg/kg per day) reduces tumor growth in an H1975 mouse xenograft model. It decreases serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol and increases HDL-cholesterol in a high-fat diet-induced mouse model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) when administered at doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg. It decreases hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA), glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (GOT), and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT) activity, increases catalase (CAT) and total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC) activity, and increases the hepatic expression of PPARγ, PGC-1α, and Nrf2 in the same model. Scutellarin (5, 25, and 50 mg/kg per day) also prevents deficits in spatial and novel object memory in rats in the Y maze and novel object recognition test, respectively.
