Planta Med 2013; 79 - PI43
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1352133

Two Egyptian herbal medicines, Tanacetum sinaicum and Pulicaria undulata with nitric oxide production inhibitory effects in RAW264.7 macrophage cells

MF Hegazy 1, H Matsuda 2, S Nakamura 2, M Yoshikawa 2, PW Paré 3
  • 1Chemistry of Medicinal Plants Department, and Center of Excellence for Advanced Sciences, National Research Centre, El-Tahrir St., Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt
  • 2Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Misasagi, Yamashina-ku, Kyoto 607 – 8412, Japan
  • 3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA.

The methylene chloride/methanol (1:1) extracts from the air-dried aerial parts of wild Tanacetum sinaicum and Pulicaria undulata collected in North Sinia, Egypt, showed inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) in RAW264.7 macrophage cells. Five new sesquiterpenes were isolated from these two species; compounds (1-3) and (15-16) from T. sinaicum and P. undulata, respectively; together with twenty five known sesquiterpenes from both species. Structures were elucidated by employing extensive 1D, 2D NMR and HR-FAB-MS experiments. In addition, all isolated sesquiterpenoids significantly inhibited the production of NO. Particularly, 3-methoxytanapartholide (4, IC50= 1.0 mM), Iivalin (17, IC50= 2.0 mM) and 2a-hydroxyalantolactone (18, 1.8 mM) were found to show stronger inhibitory effects.