An investigation on biologically active secondary metabolites from the stem bark of Mesua beccariana was carried out. A new cyclodione, mesuadione, along with several known constituents which are beccamarin, 2,5-dihydroxy-1,3,4-trimethoxy anthraquinone, 4-methoxy-1,3,5-trihydroxyanthraquinone, betulinic acid and stigmasterol were obtained from this ongoing research. Structures of these compound...

The aim of this work was to synthesize a set of heterocyclic derivatives of lupane, lup-20(29)-ene, and 18α-oleanane, and to investigate their cytotoxic activities. Some of those heterocycles were previously known in the oleanane (allobetulin) group; however, to our knowledge the syntheses and biological activities of lupane heterocycles have not been reported before. Starting from betulin (1) ...

Betulinic acid selectively inhibits the growth of ovarian carcinoma cell lines without affecting the normal cells. In the present study, the effect of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and betulinic acid (BA) combination on ovarian carcinoma cells was studied. The results demonstrated that ovarian carcinoma cells on concurrent or 5-FU followed by BA treatment show increased Sub-G1 cell population, increase...

Aim: Jamaica is rich in medicinal plants. Guaiacum officinale is the “National Flower”, with reported uses in folk medicine for the treatment of various conditions including inflammation. In our search for plants with anticancer and anti-infective properties, we evaluated Guaiacum officinale for activity against HIV-1. Methodology: The leaf, seed and twig extracts of G. officinale were screened...

Licorice (roots and stolons of Glycyrrhiza plants, Leguminosae) is a well-known natural sweetener, and its sweet constituent is an oleanane-type triterpene saponin, glycyrrhizin. Cultured cells of G. glabra do not produce glycyrrhizin, but produce two structurally different triterpenoid constituents, betulinic acid and soyasaponins. Both glycyrrhizin and soyasaponins are oleanane-type triterpen...

Microbial transformation of the antimelanoma agent betulinic acid was studied. The main objective of this study was to utilize microorganisms as in vitro models to predict and prepare potential mammalian metabolites of this compound. Preparative-scale biotransformation with resting-cell suspensions of Bacillus megaterium ATCC 13368 resulted in the production of four metabolites, which were iden...