Pentacyclic triterpenes are secondary plant metabolites widespread in fruit peel, leaves and stem bark. In particular the lupane-, oleanane-, and ursane triterpenes display various pharmacological effects while being devoid of prominent toxicity. Therefore, these triterpenes are promising leading compounds for the development of new multi-targeting bioactive agents. Screening of 39 plant materi...

The Far Eastern sea cucumber Eupentacta fraudatrix is an inhabitant of shallow waters of the south part of the Sea of Japan. This animal is an interesting and rich source of triterpene glycosides with unique chemical structures and various biological activities. The objective of this study was to investigate composition and distribution in various body components of triterpene glycosides of the...

The present investigation aims at assessing the hepatoprotective effect of triterpene fraction isolated from the stem bark of Wrightia tinctoria (containing lupeol, β-amyrin and β-sitosterol) on CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in the rat. CCl4 (1.5 mg/kg, i.p) is a potent hepatotoxic agent which causes peroxidative degeneration of membrane lipids with the potential outcome of fatty degeneration. Th...

To conform to the multiple regulations of triterpene biosynthesis, the gene encoding farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPS) was transformed into Panax notoginseng (P. notoginseng) cells in which RNA interference (RNAi) of the cycloartenol synthase (CAS) gene had been accomplished. Transgenic cell lines showed both higher expression levels of FPS and lower expression levels of CAS compared to the...

Age-related diseases, such as osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, are often associated with chronic unresolved inflammation. Neutrophils play central roles in this process by releasing tissue-degenerative proteases, such as cathepsin G, as well as pro-inflammatory leukotrienes produced by the 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) pathway. Boswellic acids (BAs) are pentacy...

compounds from South American medicinal plants, we became interested in medicinal plants belonging to the genus Maytenus (Celastraceae). The plants of this genus are widely used in folk medicine in South America and are rich sources of terpenoids including dihydro-b-agarofuran sesquiterpenes, highly oxidized friedelane triterpenes, and several types of triterpene dimers. Among these, triterpene...

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is a cytokine that plays an important role in inflammatory process and tumor development. Recent studies demonstrate that triterpene saponins from Vietnamese ginseng are efficient inhibitors of TNF-α. But the interactions between TNF-α and the saponins are still unclear. In this study, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations of TNF-α with three d...

Triterpenes, thirty-carbon compounds derived from five-carbon isoprene units, are among the largest and diverse classes of natural products. To date, over 20,000 distinct triterpene structures having more than 100 skeletal variations are indentified from natural sources. The majority of this triterpene diversity is found within the plant kingdom. Plants often accumulate triterpenes in their gly...

Purpose: To optimize extraction of total triterpene acids from loquat leaf and evaluate their in vitro antioxidant activities. Methods: The independent variables were ethanol concentration, extraction time, and solvent ratio, while the dependent variable was content of total triterpene acids. Composite design and response surface method were used to optimize the extraction process, while antiox...

Apple (Malus × domestica) accumulates bioactive ursane-, oleanane-, and lupane-type triterpenes in its fruit cuticle, but their biosynthetic pathway is still poorly understood. We used a homology-based approach to identify and functionally characterize two new oxidosqualene cyclases (MdOSC4 and MdOSC5) and one cytochrome P450 (CYP716A175). The gene expression patterns of these enzymes and of pr...