artemetin and casticin

Topics: Apigenin; Apolipoprotein A-I; Atherosclerosis; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Flavonoids; Fruit; Hesperidin; Humans; Lipid Peroxidation; Lipoproteins, HDL; Lipoproteins, LDL; Luteolin; Plant Extracts; Protein Aggregates; Vanillic Acid; Vitex

A number of flavonoids including casticin and artemetin from Artemisia annua have shown synergism with artemisinin against Plasmodium falciparum, but it is unclear if the flavonoids are also extracted into a tea infusion of the plant. Using a tea infusion preparation protocol that was reported to be highly effective for artemisinin extraction, we measured casticin and artemetin extraction. There was only a 1.8 % recovery of casticin in the infusion while artemetin was undetectable. After 24 hr storage at room temperature, casticin yield declined by 40 %. These results show that although a tea infusion of the plant may extract artemisinin, the polymethoxylated flavonoids casticin and artemetin are poorly extracted and lost with storage at room temperature and thus, the tea infusion appears to lose synergistic value.

Topics: Artemisia annua; Artemisinins; Beverages; Drug Stability; Drug Synergism; Flavonoids; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Molecular Structure; Plant Leaves; Temperature; Time Factors

Vitex trifolia L. var. simplicifolia Cham. is widely distributed in Asia, and its fruits are used as a folk medicine for headaches, colds, migraine, eyepain, etc. In order to effectively separate high-purity active components from the seeds of Vitex trifolia L. var. simplicifolia Cham., a high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) procedure was performed to separate four components from the crude extract of the fruits. A two-phase solvent system composed of light petroleum-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (3:6: 3.6: 3, v/v/v/ v) was used. Within 230 min, 23 mg of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, 15 mg of 3,6,7-trimethylquercetagetin, 24 mg of casticin and 5 mg of artemetin were obtained from 250 mg of the crude extract of Viticis Fructus in one-step elution under the conditions of a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min, 800 r/min and the detection wavelength of 254 nm. The purities of the four fractions were 93.1%, 97.3%, 98.7% and 98.5%, respectively. The obtained fractions were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and 13C-NMR. The results indicate that HSCCC is a powerful technique for the purification of active components from Viticis Fructus.

Topics: Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Countercurrent Distribution; Flavonoids; Fruit; Parabens; Seeds; Vitex

Flavonoids are distributed in many plants. We studied the antitumor effects of flavonoids isolated from Viticis Fructus, casticin, artemetin, quercetagetin and 5,3'-dihydroxy-6,7,4' -trimethoxyflavanone. Casticin inhibited the growth of KB cells markedly (IC(50)=0.23 microM), compared with the other flavonoids tested (IC(50)=15.3-18.6 microM). In contrast, casticin did not inhibit the proliferation of A431 cells similar to normal cell lines, 3T3 Swiss Albino and TIG-103. Flow cytometric analyses revealed that the exposure of KB cells to casticin led to significant arrest at G2-M. In immunostaining of KB cells, casticin disrupted mitotic spindles. These results suggest that G2-M arrest by casticin may be relevant to its antimitotic activity, although the mechanism of selective growth inhibition has been unknown. Further examinations are required to confirm that casticin is an antitumor drug for specific cancers with low toxicity.

Topics: Aldehyde Reductase; Animals; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Cell Division; Cells, Cultured; Chromones; Flavones; Flavonoids; G2 Phase; Humans; KB Cells; Mice; Mitosis; Spindle Apparatus; Swiss 3T3 Cells; Vitex

Interaction between the flavones casticin and artemetin and the antimalarial activity of chloroquine and qinghaosu (QHS) was examined using an in vitro growth assay based on [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation in synchronized cultures of a cloned line of Plasmodium falciparum. Casticin, and to a lesser extent artemetin, selectively enhanced the inhibition of growth by QHS, but had little effect on the activity of chloroquine. The findings suggest that flavones indigenous to Artemisia annua, from which QHS is isolated, might significantly alter the clinical potential of this novel antimalarial drug in the treatment of chloroquine-resistant malaria.

Topics: Animals; Antimalarials; Artemisinins; Clone Cells; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Synergism; Flavonoids; Plasmodium falciparum; Sesquiterpenes