Microbial production of plant derived, biologically active compounds has the potential to provide economic and ecologic alternatives to existing low productive, plant-based processes. Current production of the pharmacologically active cyclic triterpenoid betulinic acid is realized by extraction from the bark of plane tree or birch. Here, we reengineered the reported betulinic acid pathway into ...

The MeOH extract of the leaves of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) completely inhibited the motility of cultured epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi at the concentration of 2 mg/ml after 2 h of incubation. Activity-guided fractionation of the MeOH extract has resulted in the isolation of three triterpene acids, betulinic, oleanolic and ursolic acids. Ursolic acid stopped the movement of all ...

Betulin and betulinic acid, plant-derived triterpenoid compounds, have been described to possess anti-inflammatory activity. In this paper, we examine the ability of both compounds to induce and modulate cytokine production in human whole blood cell cultures. The results indicate that betulin is a modest TNF-alpha inducer and also an enhancer of mitogen-induced TNF-alpha production. In contrast...

For the identification of anti-inflammatory ingredients from Forsythiae fructus (FF), we isolated three hydroxyl pentacyclic triterpene acids (HTAs), namely, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, and betulinic acid, from an ethylacetate fraction of FF, and evaluated the effect of these triterpene acids on asthmatic guinea pigs by measuring specific airway resistance (sRaw) during both immediate-phase r...

With at least 60% of the Millettia species (Fabaceae) being in medicinal use, we found it relevant to assess the potential antiprotozoal and antifungal activities of Millettia richardiana. Water and methanol crude extracts of the stem barks from M. richardiana and the six fractions resulting from the fractionation of the methanol extract were tested. The dichloromethane extracted fraction showe...

Betulinic acid is a naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpenoid and has been shown to exhibit a variety of biological activities including inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), antibacterial, antimalarial, antiinflammatory, anthelmintic and antioxidant properties. This article reports a survey of the literature dealing with betulinic acid related biological properties that has appe...

The Argentinean legume Caesalpinia paraguariensis Burk. (Fabaceae) was selected for further fractionation work based on the strong antimicrobial activity of its CH2Cl2-MeOH (1:1 v/v) extract against a host of clinically significant microorganisms, including antibiotic resistant strains. 1D and 2D NMR enabled the identification of the novel benzoxecin derivative caesalpinol along with the known ...

The ethyl acetate partition of dried methanolic extract of aerial parts of Euphorbia microsciadia (Euphorbiaceae) afforded three pentacyclic triterpenes, betulinic acid (1) from lupane type, oleanolic acid (2) from oleane type and ursolic acid (3) from ursane type triterpenes that are reported for the first time in this plant. These three compounds were structurally compared through their mass ...

Betulinic acid, which is found in transgenic roots of Senna obtusifolia (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby, a pentacyclic triterpene with distinctive pharmacological activities. In this study, we report the differences content betulinic acid and selected anthraquinones S. hairy overexpression PgSS1 gene (SOPSS2 line) transformed without genetic construct (SOA41 line). Both root lines grew 10 L sprinkle b...

Plant triterpenes, such as oleanolic acid and betulin were described as hepatoprotectants active against cytotoxicity of acetaminophen or cadmium. The aim of this paper is to compare the cytoprotective activity of betulin, betulinic acid and oleanolic acid against ethanol-induced cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells. The influence of three triterpenes on ethanol-induced production of superoxide anion an...