Editor’s recommendation: The findings are published in Natural Products and Bioprospecting (2022, 12: 11), an international journal for natural product research.
Figure 1. Chemical structures of anticancer active compounds in Agarwood
Fig. 2. Flow chart of activity tracing for the isolation of monomeric compounds from Agarwood agarwood
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Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Spreng., also known as Baimuxiang, is the base plant of traditional Chinese medicine agarwood, widely distributed in southern China, including Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Taiwan and Hong Kong. After the agarwood tree is damaged (microbial invasion, fire, thunder, punching, etc.), it will slowly form resin in the heartwood, that is, agarwood. Researchers have conducted in-depth research on the traditional Chinese medicine agarwood, but the research on the agarwood flower is relatively rare.
Wang Yuehu’s team from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences found in the screening of anticancer drugs that the ethanolic extract of Agarwood agarwood has an anti-cancer effect on human lung cancer, cervical cancer and neuroblastoma. , ovarian cancer, leukemia, prostate cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer and other cancer cells have a significant inhibitory effect, especially on human lung adenocarcinoma SPC-A-1 cells, human lung squamous cell carcinoma NCI-H520 cells and human lung adenocarcinoma cells. Cancer A549 cells have a strong effect, with the median inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of 0.11, 0.25 and 0.44 μg/mL, respectively.
Oriented by the anticancer activity, the researchers further tracked the anticancer active components in Agarwood. Through the tracking and separation of anticancer activities, it was finally found that three cucurbitane triterpenes and one 2-(2-phenethyl) chromone compound were effective in human lung adenocarcinoma SPC-A-1 and human lung squamous cell carcinoma NCI- Both H520 and human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells have significant inhibitory activity. Of great interest, cucurbitacin E (IC50 = 0.002 μM), cucurbitacin B (IC50 = 0.007 μM), agarinolide A (IC50 = 0.20 μM) and 7-hydroxy-6-methoxy[2-( Inhibitory activity of 4-methoxyphenyl)ethyl]-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one (IC50 = 0.91 μM) against paclitaxel-resistant human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 (A549/Taxol) , significantly higher than paclitaxel (IC50 = 1.80 μM). This research provides a new idea for the development and utilization of Agarwood.
The findings were published in the international journal Natural Products and Bioprospecting (2022, 12: 11).
Source: Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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