Title : Isolation of anticancer triterpenoid from Arisaema jacquemontii
Abstract:
Arisaema jacquemontii Blume (Araceae) is found in the Northern parts of Pakistan and Kashmir (1). Though the plant is known as toxic in folklore, it finds use in traditional system of medicine to treat various ailments (2). The plant is used as an anti-convulsing in the Chinese traditional medicine. It is also used to cure respiratory infections, intestinal worms, skin problems including pimples, blisters, ring worms, and as a massage on muscles to regain muscular strength. The extracts of the plant also showed promising antioxidant, antifungal and immunomodulation potential (3-7).
Several chemical constituents, including lectins, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloid, proteins, carbohydrates, terpenoids, coumarins, quinones, glycosides alkaloids, arginine, leucine, serine, threonine, tyrosine, valine, 13-phenyltridecanoic acid, alanine, anthraquinones and phenolic compounds have been reported from the plant. The chemical constituents of the plant suppressed the mitogen-induced T-cells and B-cells proliferation (4,5). The lectins of the plant showed in vitro proliferation of HCT-15 (82%), HOP-62 (77%), SW-620 (73%) and HT-29 (70%) cancer cell lines. A monocot lectin has shown a potent anti-insect and anti-proliferative activity (5-9). Alanine demonstrated a potent inhibitory effects against Plasmodium berghei, with a dose dependent reduction in the parasite load (5).
We have been investigating the plant for its chemical constituents and biological activities for more than 30 years. Several new and known chemical constituents of the plant have been reported by our group. Our investigations have shown that the dichloromethane and methanol extracts of the plant contain the DNA damage inducing components (6). The mechanism based approach utilizes DNA repair or recombination-deficient mutants of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Continuing our researches on the plant, we have isolated a cytotoxic triterpenoid, 2-hydroxy diplopterol (Patent No. SI-141956/520/ 2010). Structures of the new compounds were determined on the basis of spectral studies while known compounds were identified on the basis of their spectral data and literature evidences. An account of the research work which lead to the isolation of the anticancer triterpenoid will be presented.
