OBJECTIVE To provide further evidence for the ethnomedicinal use of the Eastern Nigeria mistletoe, Loranthus micranthus (L. micranthus), as an immunostimulant. METHODS Solvent fractions from the crude extract of the mistletoe plant was obtained and screened by the cell mediated delayed type hypersensitivity reaction (DTHR) model in mice. Then the immunomodulatory potentials of a major lupane ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of liver disease, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Due to significant adverse effects and emergence of resistant strains of currently developed anti-HCV agents, plant extracts have been considered to be potential sources of new bioactive compounds against HCV. The aim of this study was to evaluate the functional effects of trit...

Pulsatilla koreana, a species endemic to Korea, is an important herb used in traditional medicine to treat amoebic dysentery and malaria. In the present study, 23 oleanane-type triterpenoid saponins 1-23 and eight lupane-type triterpenoid saponins 24-31 were isolated from the roots of P. koreana. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data. The methanol extract and isola...

BACKGROUND Platycodon grandiflorum is the only species in the genus Platycodon of the family Campanulaceae, which has been traditionally used as a medicinal plant for its lung-heat-clearing, antitussive, and expectorant properties in China, Japanese, and Korean. Oleanane-type triterpenoid saponins were the main chemical components of P. grandiflorum and platycodin D was the abundant and main bi...

Anemone flaccida Fr. Schmidt, a family of ancient hopanoids, have been used as traditional Asian herbs for the treatments of inflammation and convulsant diseases. Previous study on HeLa cells suggested that triterpenoid saponins from Anemone flaccida Fr. Schmidt may have potential antitumor effect due to their apoptotic activities. Here, we confirmed the apoptotic activities of the following fi...

Recently the number of studies investigating triterpenoid saponins has drastically increased due to their diverse and potentially attractive biological activities. Currently the literature contains chemical structures of few hundreds of triterpenoid saponins of plant and animal origin. Triterpenoid saponins consist of a triterpene aglycone with one or more sugar moieties attached to it. However...

phytochemical investigation of a dichloromethane-methanol (1:1) extract of the fruit pericarp of omphalocarpum procerum which exhibited antiplasmodial activity during preliminary screening led to the isolation of the new fatty ester triterpenoid 3β-hexadecanoyloxy-28-hydroxyolean-12-en-11-one (1), together with five known compounds 2-6. the structure of the new compound as well as those of the ...

Native to Southern China, Ilex pubescens and Ilex asprella are frequently used in traditional Chinese medicine. Both of them produce a large variety of ursane-type triterpenoid saponins, which have been demonstrated to have different pharmacological effects. However, little is known about their biosynthesis. In this study, transcriptomic analysis of I. pubescens and comparison with its closely ...

Hedera helix L. is an important traditional medicinal plant in Europe. The main active components are triterpenoid saponins, but none of the potential enzymes involved in triterpenoid saponins biosynthesis have been discovered and annotated. Here is reported the first study of global transcriptome analyses using the Illumina HiSeq™ 2500 platform for H. helix. In total, over 24 million clean rea...