Abstract:
Studies on cancer chemopreventive activities were carried out on the flowers of
Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (L.) Savigny. The powdered flowers were successively extracted with
petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol. These extracts were tested for cancer
chemopreventive activity including inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX) both in COX-1 and
COX-2, luciferase activity by activation of antioxidant-reponse element (ARE) and inhibition
of nuclear factor kappa B (NFB). Crude chloroform extract was shown to inhibit COX-1
with IC50 value of 2.98 μg/ml. All extracts were found to be inactive in COX-2 inhibition.
Petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extracts exhibited activation of ARE with EC50 values of
0.71 and 12.9 μg/ml, respectively. Chloroform and methanol extracts were inactive. Three
extracts of petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate demonstrated inhibition of NFB
with IC50 values of 19.7, 0.03 and 1.85 μg/ml, respectively. Because of their biological
activities, chloroform and petroleum ether extracts were submitted for further separation.
The petroleum ether extract was separated using column chromatography to afford
six compounds of K1, K2, K8, K10, K11 and K12. The structures of compounds K2, K1 and
K8 were determined on the basis of physical and spectroscopic data to be novel dammarane
triterpenoids; 1,20(S)-dihydroxydammar-24(25)-ene-3-O-stearate, 11,20(S)-
dihydroxydammar-24(25)-ene-3-O-stearate and 1,20(S)-dihydroxy-25-hydroperoxydammar
-23(24)-ene-3-O-stearate, and given the trivial names, bruguierin A, bruguierin B and
bruguierin C, respectively. Compounds K10, K11 and K12 have been identified as
taraxerone, nonacosane and heptacosane, respectively. The investigation of chloroform
extract has led to six compounds: K3, K7, K9, K4, K5 and K6. The structure elucidation
indicated that compounds K3, K7 and K9 were cyclic 4-hydroxy-dithiosulfonate. Compound
K3 was assigned to be 1,1-dioxo-16-[1,2]dithiolan-4-ol, a novel cyclic dithiosulfonate and
given the trivial name, bruguiesulfurol. Compounds K7, K9, K5, K4 and K6 were identified
by comparing them with previous reports as brugierol, isobrugierol, triacontanol, daucosterol
and daucosterol 6-O-palmitate, respectively.
Compounds K2 and K7 demonstrated inhibition of COX-2 with IC50 values of 6.6
and 6.1 μM, respectively. Compounds K2, K7 and K9 were found to inhibit NFB with IC50
values of 7.8, 85.0 and 14.5 μM, respectively. Compounds K1, K2, K3, K7, K8 and K9
exhibited activation of ARE with EC50 values of 13.3, 9.5, 56.7, 3.5, 17.9 and 1.8 μM,
respectively. Compounds K7, K9 and K10 also showed the inhibition of TPA-induced
ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity and induction of quinone reductase (QR) activity.
Compounds K9 and K10 inhibited ODC, with an IC50 values of 43.5, 47.2 μM, respectively
whereas K10 exhibited induction of QR with induction ratio (IR) 1.1