ABSTRACT
Six natural products (1-6) were isolated from the fresh leaves of Carissa carandas including ursolic acid (1), ursolic acid-γ-lactone (2), 27-O-Z-p-coumaroyl ursolic acid (3), 23-hydroxy ursolic acid (4), uvaol (5) and ursolic aldehyde (6). Their structure elucidation was done by modern spectroscopic techniques including 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and comparison with reported data. All compounds were known, while 2-4 were isolated for the first time from the genus Carissa. Isolated compounds were screened for their cytotoxic via MTT assay and anti-inflammatory potential via luminol-enhanced chem-iluminescence assay. Compounds 3 and 4 showed potent activity against lung cancer cell line (NCI-H460), and 4 showed potent anti-inflammatory activity against reactive oxygen species production from human whole blood phagocytes. Compound 5 displayed good selective cytotoxicity against NCI-H460 and did not provoke cytotoxicity against normal cell line upto 250 µM. Compounds 3-5 were identified as potential anti-cancer drug leads.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents , Apocynaceae , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/pharmacology , Apocynaceae/chemistry , Phytochemicals/pharmacology , Plant Extracts/chemistryABSTRACT
Examination of crude methanol extracts of four Sudanese plants (Azadirachta indica, Acacia nilotica, Balanites aegyptiaca and Allium sativa) revealed that only three species had a considerable in-vitro anti-leishmanial activity on Leishmania major promastigotes. The plants Azadrachta indica, Allium sativa, and Acacia nilotica gave a LC50 of 10.2, 4.94, and 89.38 microg/ml, respectively. Extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca had a moderate biological activity on L major promastigotes.