Identification of Sakurasosaponin as a Cytotoxic Principle from Jacquinia flammea

• Published in: Natural product communications Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 365 - 368
• Main Authors: Sánchez-Medina, Alberto, Peña-Rodríguez, Luis M., May-Pat, Filogonio, Karagianis, Gloria, Waterman, Peter G., Mallet, Anthony I., Habtemariam, Solomon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2010
• Subjects: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - chemistry; Anti-Bacterial Agents - toxicity; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - toxicity; Bacteria - drug effects; Carbohydrate Sequence; Cell Line, Tumor; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; HeLa Cells; Humans; Methanol; Mexico; Mice; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Molecular Sequence Data; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Plant Extracts - toxicity; Plant Roots - chemistry; Plants, Medicinal - chemistry; Saponins - chemistry; Saponins - toxicity; Solvents; Mexico; sakurososaponin; Jacquinia flammea; Bonellia; Theophrastaceae; cytotoxicity; saponins
• ISSN: 1934-578X; 1555-9475
• DOI: 10.1177/1934578X1000500304

The crude ethanolic extract of leaves, stem-bark and roots of J. flammea were tested for their cytotoxic effect against two mammalian cell lines (HeLa and RAW 264.7) and four bacterial species (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). When tested at the concentration of 100 μg/mL, the root extract showed the highest cytotoxic activity against mammalian cells followed by the stem-bark extract while the leaves extract did not show significant activity. No antibacterial activity was detected for all extracts when tested up to 500 μg/disc in the disc diffusion assay. The cytotoxic root extract was subjected to fractionation using solvents of ascending polarity: petroleum ether, chloroform, ethylacetate, butanol and water. The water fraction which showed cytotoxic activity was further subjected to routine bioassay-guided fraction to lead to the isolation of sakurasosaponin as the active principle. The recorded IC50 value for sakurasosaponin was 11.3 ± 1.52 and 3.8 ± 0.25 μM (n=3) against HeLa and RAW 264.7 respectively. The identification of sakurasosaponin was based on analysis of spectroscopic data.