α-Asarone is a phytochemical compound with neuroprotective, anti-oxidative, anticonvulsive and cognitive enhancing action, isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Acorus tatarinowii. Numerous clinical studies in China had indicated the effectiveness of α-asarone against respiratory disorders and epilepsy. Asarone tablets have been clinically used as bronchial asthma and bronchitis prescription drug in China. Unfortunately, toxic and genotoxic studies of a-asarone have indicated that this compound may pose a risk to human health, including embryotoxicity and maternal toxicity in rats, hepatotoxicity in rat-cultivated hepatocytes, and in vivo and in vitro genotoxic damage in mammalian cells.

A-escin (Escin Ia) and isoescin Ia have been traditionally used clinically as the chief active ingredients of escin, a major triterpene saponin isolated from horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) seeds for the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency, hemorrhoids, inflammation and edema. A-escin administration to prednisolone-treated rats slightly reduced the unfavorable effects of prednisolone on width of periosteal and endosteal osteoid and periosteal transverse growth in the tibia. A-escin suppresses the metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer by inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition via down-regulating LOXL2 expression. Escin Ia has being shown to inhibit pancreatic lipase.