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DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282142
Isolation of Novel Cytotoxic Compounds from a Bangladeshi Medicinal Plant Acrostichum aureum
Natural products and related drugs are used to treat 87% of all categorised human diseases including cancer and immunological disorders [1]. This study reports on the isolation and characterisation of novel cytotoxic compounds from Bangladeshi medicinal plants. Following LC-MS metabolic profiling and cytotoxic screening of 16 Bangladeshi medicinal plants against normal mouse fibroblast (NIH3T3) and three human cancer cell lines (AGS, HT-29 and MDA-MB-435S), Acrostichum aureum L. was selected for further phytochemical and pharmacological investigations. A total of 13 compounds were isolated from this plant using SPE and reversed-phase HPLC. The structures of compounds were elucidated by NMR, MS and other spectroscopic methods. Three compounds (1, 2 and 5) were identified as novel natural products. Eight known compounds were isolated for the first time from A. aureum; di-(2-methylheptyl) phthalate (3), (2S, 3S)-pterosin C (4), (2R)-pterosin P (7), tetracosane (6), quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucosyl-(6→1)-α-L-rhamnoside (9), quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside (10) and quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnosyl-7-O-β-D-glucoside (11), and patriscabratine (13). Two known flavonoids, quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucoside (8) and kaempferol (12) have previously been isolated from A. aureum. The cytotoxic activity of all compounds was assessed against the cell lines mentioned above using the MTT assay. Four compounds (3, 5, 6 and 13) showed moderate to potent cytotoxic activity. Compound 5 displayed the most potent cytotoxicity against gastric and colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (IC50 7.5–21.6µg-mL-1). The mode of action was revealed as induction of apoptosis. This research has demonstrated that Bangladeshi plants are an exciting sources of bioactive novel compounds and as such a rich basis for ongoing drug discovery research.
References: 1. Newman DJ and Cragg GM (2007)J Nat Prod 70(3): 461–77.