3-N-butylphthalide, a green botanical medicine, is a successfully synthesized and stable chemical drug used for the treatment of ischemic stroke that has independent intellectual property rights in China.

The first L-isomer, originally extracted from celery seed, was artificially synthesized from racemic acid, also known as butylphthalide. L-3-n-butylphthalide has been shown to reduce β-amylase-induced neuronal apoptosis and improve cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease animal models. As a neuroprotective drug for cerebrovascular disease, 3-n-butylphthalide has been confirmed to protect nerve cells in animal experiments of stroke.

Because of the significant effects of l-3-n-butylphthalide in the clinical treatment of acute ischemic stroke, Yaping Wei and colleagues from Hebei Medical University also adopted l-3-n-butylphthalide for the treatment of vascular dementia. These researchers are the first to report that pretreatment with l-3-n-butylphthalide can improve cognitive deficits and neuronal loss in the hippocampus of cerebral repetitive ischemia/reperfusion mice. L-3-n-butylphthalide may be a potentially beneficial and promising drug for the treatment and prevention of vascular dementia through upregulation of Akt expression in the hippocampus.

These results are published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 19, 2013).

Article: " L-3-n-butylphthalide protects against vascular dementia via activation of the Akt kinase pathway," by Yaping Huai1, Yanhong Dong2, Jing Xu1, Nan Meng1, Chunfeng Song3, Wenbin Li4, Peiyuan Lv1, 2 (1 Department of Neurology, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050017, Hebei Province, China; 2 Department of Neurology, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050051, Hebei Province, China; 3 Electron Microscope Center, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050017, Hebei Province, China; 4 Department of Pathophysiology, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050017, Hebei Province, China)

Huai YP, Dong YH, Xu J, Meng N, Song CF, Li WB, Lv PY. L-3-n-butylphthalide protects against vascular dementia via activation of the Akt kinase pathway. Neural Regen Res. 2013;8(19):1733-1742. doi:10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2013.19.001