Planta Med 2013; 79 - PN17
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1348698

Antileukemic Anthraquinones from Asphodelus microcarpus

MM Ghoneim 1, 4, G Ma 1, AA El-Hela 4, AEI Mohammad 4, SJ Cutler 3 SA Ross 1, 2*
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy
  • 3Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 4Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Al-Azhar, Cairo 11371, Egypt

Bioassay guided fractionation of the ethanolic extract of Asphodelus microcarpus Salzm.et Vivi (Asphodelaceae) led to the isolation and characterization of antileukemic anthraquinones, asphodelin-10'-oxanthrone-10'-β-D-arabinopyranoside (1), asphodelin-10'-oxanthrone-10'-β-D-xylopyranoside (2), chrysalodin-10'-oxanthrone-10'-β-D-glucopyranoside (3) and also, known anthraquinones; ramosin (4) and emodin (5), in which 1, 2 and 3 are new and results are summarized in table 1.

Tab. 1: Inhibitory effects isolated compounds on the growth of human leukemia cells in vitro (48h drug exposure for HL60 and K562 cells). Experiments were carried out in triplicate.

Compound

Estimated IC50 (µM)

Compound

Estimated IC50 (µM)

HL60 cells

K562 cells

HL60 cells

K562 cells

1

0.07

0.29

4

1.50

2.50

2

0.35

0.36

5

1.50

2.90

3

3.10

4.10