The Cytotoxic Principles of Prunella vulgaris, Psychotria serpens, and Hyptis capitata: Ursolic Acid and Related Derivatives1

Kuo-Hsiung Lee; Yuh-Meei Lin; Tian-Shung Wu; De-Cheng Zhang; Takashi Yamagishi; Toshimitsu Hayashi; Iris H. Hall; Jer-Jang Chang; Rong-Yang Wu; Tsang-Hsiung Yang

doi:10.1055/s-2006-962441

Planta Med 1988; 54(4): 308-311
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-962441

Papers

The Cytotoxic Principles of Prunella vulgaris, Psychotria serpens, and Hyptis capitata: Ursolic Acid and Related Derivatives¹

Kuo-Hsiung Lee² , Yuh-Meei Lin² , Tian-Shung Wu² , De-Cheng Zhang² , Takashi Yamagishi² , Toshimitsu Hayashi² , Iris H. Hall² , Jer-Jang Chang³ , Rong-Yang Wu⁴ , Tsang-Hsiung Yang⁵

²Natural Products Laboratory, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, U.S.A.
³Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, U.S.A.
⁴Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
⁵School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical College, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.

1 Antitumor Agents; LXXXVIII. For paper LXXXVII in this series, see Fukamiya, N., Okano, M., Aratani, T., Negoro, K., Lin, Y.-M., Lee, K.-H. (1987) Planta Med. 53, 140.

Abstract

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Abstract

Bioassay-directed fractionation of the cytotoxic antileukemic extracts of Prunella vulgaris, Psychotria serpens, and Hyptis capitata has led to the isolation of ursolic acid as one of the active principles. Ursolic acid showed significant cytotoxicity in the lymphocytic leukemia cells P-388 and L-1210 as well as the human lung carcinoma cell A-549. It also demonstrated marginal cytotoxicity in the KB and the human colon (HCT-8) and mammary (MCF-7) tumor cells. Esterification of the hydroxyl group at C-3 and the carboxyl group at C-17 led to compounds with decreased cytotoxicity in the human tumor cell lines, but with equivalent or slightly increased activity against the growth of L-1210 and P-388 leukemic cells.

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