Planta Med 2008; 74 - PB164
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084508

Constituents of Euphorbia acanthothamnos and evaluation of their antileishmanial activity

V Myrianthopoulos 1, N Fokialakis 1, P Magiatis 1, N Aligiannis 1, B Tekwani 2, AL Skaltsounis 1
  • 1Department of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis 15771, Athens, Greece
  • 2National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, 38677, USA

Euphorbia acanthothamnos (Heldr.) is a low-growing shrub inhabiting rocky places, widespread in Greece and the Mediterranean region. It belongs to a family of plants widely known for their highly toxic secondary metabolites. Phytochemical investigation of E. acanthothamnos has led to the isolation of the flavonoids naringenin, eriodictyol, catechin, (-)epicatechin as well as three flavonoid glycosides, quercetin 3-O-α-L-arabinopyranoside, kaempferol 3-O-α-L-arabinopyranoside and naringenin 7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, β-sitosterol along with oleanolic acid and a rare ent-atisane named ent-3-oxoatisan-16α-17-diol (Fig.1) that has been previously isolated only from E.acaulis, E.fidjiana and Homalanthus acominatus, all belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family.

The antiprotozoan potential of diterpenoids is well-known [1–3]. As a continuation of our research on antiprotozoan total extracts and secondary metabolites from plants of the Mediterranean basin [4], we have evaluated the antileishmanial activity of some isolated compounds of E. acanthothamnos. Their activity was evaluated against Leishmania donovani promastigotes. Only ent-atisane showed significant antileishmanial activity with IC50=1.6µg/ml

Fig.1

References:

1. Gonzalez, P. et al. (2005) Int J Antimicrob Agents 25:136–141.

2. Habtemariam, S. (2003) BMC Pharmacol. 3: 6.

3. Tan, N. et al. (2002)Phytochemistry 61: 881–884.

4. Fokialakis, N. et al. (2007)J. Nat. Med. 61:38–45.