A therapeutic agent and prophylactic agent for a disease accompanying an abnormality in an amount of insulin or insulin response, an agent for an insulin-mimetic action, a food, beverage and feed, an agent for enhancing glucose uptake into a cell, and an agent for inducing differentiation into an adipocyte, characterized in that each comprises as an effective ingredient at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a chalcone compound, an acetophenone compound, a coumarin compound, a phthalide compound, derivatives thereof, and pharmacologically acceptable salts thereof.
Angelica keiskei (Ashitaba in Japanese), a traditional herb in Japan, contains abundant prenylated chalcones. It has been reported that the chalcones from A. keiskei showed such bioactivities as anti-bacterial, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic effects. Xanthoangelol, 4-hydroxyderricin and six new chalcones were isolated in this study from an ethanol extract of A. keiskei by octadecyl silyl (ODS) and silica gel chromatography, and identified by 1D- and 2D-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high-resolution mass spectrometric analyses. The chalcones from A. keiskei markedly increased the expression of the adiponectin gene and the production of adiponectin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. These results suggest that the chalcones from A. keiskei might be useful for preventing the metabolic syndrome.