Feverfew is a traditional herbal remedy for a wide range of medical conditions, including migraine and arthritis1−4. The plant contains a large number of natural products, but the active principles probably include one or more of the sesquiterpene lactones known to be present, including parthenolide (Figure 1)5−6. Feverfew can be taken in a variety of forms, including the raw leaf or tablets or...

Plants have a long history as therapeutics in the treatment of human diseases and have been a continuous source of inspiration for the development of new medicines. Among them, the genus Inula (Asteraceae) comprisesmore than 100 species, many of which are widely used in traditional medicine for a variety of biological purposes including anti-inammatory, anti-cancer and antibacterial activities...

The recent discovery and structure elucidation of approximately 100 new sesquiterpene lactones during a systematic study of Artemisia and other genera of the family of Compositae in our laboratory (16) have provided the opportunity for further investigations on the potential of these sesquiterpene lactones as new therapeutic agents. Much of the earlier study on sesquiterpene lactones for medici...

Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), which is known to have a variety of terpene-hydroxylating activities, was screened for a P450 mono-oxygenase to convert (+)-valencene to (+)-nootkatone. A novel P450 cDNA was identified in a chicory root EST library. Co-expression of the enzyme with a valencene synthase in yeast, led to formation of trans-nootkatol, cis-nootkatol and (+)-nootkatone. The novel enz...

Carpesium abrotanoides L. is rich in sesquiterpene lactones, the experiments of anti-tumor activity vitro showed that total lactone extracts exhibited most cytotoxicity activities against HepG-2 cells (IC50 = 4.2 μg/mL). In order to isolated active compounds quickly, strategy HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS combined with high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was implemented. Three compounds, 2...

Like thapsigargin, which is undergoing clinical trials, trilobolide is a natural product with promising anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. Similar to thapsigargin, it has limited aqueous solubility that strongly reduces its potential medicinal applications. The targeted delivery of hydrophobic drugs can be achieved using liposome-based carriers. Therefore, we designed a traceable lipo...

Natural compounds represent a rich and promising source of novel, biologically active chemical entities for treating leishmaniasis. Sesquiterpene lactones are a recognized class of terpenoids with a wide spectrum of biological activities, including activity against Leishmania spp. In this work, a sesquiterpene lactone-rich preparation-a leaf rinse extract (LRE) from Tithonia diversifolia-was te...

Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone produced by Artemisia annua glandular secretory trichomes, is the active ingredient in the most effective treatment for malaria currently available. We identified a mutation that disrupts the amorpha-4,11-diene C-12 oxidase (CYP71AV1) enzyme, responsible for a series of oxidation reactions in the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway. Detailed metabolic studies o...

BACKGROUND Artemisia annua L. has been used for many centuries in Chinese traditional medicine. Artemisinin, the active principle was first isolated and identified in the 1970s becoming the global back bone to the fight against malaria. Our research group previously developed an economic and ecological friendly process to obtain this compound. In the pursuit to also exploit the residue generate...