Ataa SAİD, Khaled RASHED, Harukuni TOKUDA, Antje HUEFNER

Antitumor activity of Ailanthus excelsa (Roxb) stem bark fractions and Canthin-6-one

The alkaloidal compound was isolated from chloroform fraction of methanol 70% extract of Ailanthus excelsa stem bark of Egyptian origin. Successive extracts of A. excelsa stem bark and the isolated compound canthin-6-one were screened for chemopreventive activity. The chloroform extract showed strong inhibitory effect on short term in vivo assay for antitumor promotors, Epstein-Barr virus early antigen induction assay, compared with other fractions petroleum ether, diethyl ether and methanol 70% extracts. The isolated compound canthin-6-one also showed strong activity in the course of this assay. Further, these useful materials were investigated for the inhibitory effects in two-stage mouse skin carcinogensis test. Chloroform extract and its active canthin-6-one decrease actually the average number of papillomas per mouse and percentage papillomas in the promoting stage. These materials were found to exhibit the excellent anti-tumor promoting activity in the in vivo carcinogensis test.

Keywords:

-,

PDF

___

Cordell G.A., Ogura M. and Farnsworth N.R. (1978) Alkaloid Constituents of Ailanthus excelsa (Simaroubaceae). Lloydia, 41: 166-168.
Dhanasekaran S., Suresh B., Sethuraman M., Rajan S. and Dubey R. (1993) Antifertility activity of Ailanthus excelsa Linn. in female albino rats. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 31: 384-385.
Henle G. and Henle W. (1966) Immunofluorescence in cells derived from Burkitt s lymphoma. Journal of Bacteriology, 91: 1248-1256. 
Ito Y., Yanase S., Fujita J., Harayama T., Takashima M. and Imanaka H. (1981) A short-term in vitro assay for promoter substances using human lymphoblastoid cells latently infected with Epstein-Barr virus. Cancer Letters, 13: 29-37.
Joshi B.C., Pandey A., Chaurasia L., Pal M., Sharma R.P. and Khare A. (2003) Antifungal activity of the stem bark of Ailanthus excelsa. Fitoterpia, 74: 689-691.
Kirtikar K.R. and Basu B.D. (1933) Indian Medicinal plants Vol.1. Lalit Mohan Basu. Prajati Press: Calcutta, India, 503.
Ogura M., Corell G.A., Kinghorn A.D. and Farnsworth N.R. (1977) Potential Anticancer Agents VI. Constituents of Ailanthus excelsa (Simaroubaceae). Lioydia, 40: 579-584.
Shrimali M., Jain D.C., Darokar M.P., Sharma R.P. and Khare A. (2001) Antibacterial Activity of Ailanthus Research, 15: 165-166. (Roxb). Phytotherapy
Srinivas, P.V., Rao R.R. and Rao, J.M. (2006) Two new tetracyclic triterpenes from the heart wood of Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. Chemistry Biodivers, 3 (8): 930-4.
Suresh B. and Dhansekran S. (1990) Antipyretic studies of some traditionally used medicinal plants. Proc 42 nd Indian Pharmaceutical Congress E-541.