No abstract

Plants of the Celastraceae family comprise 60 genera and 850 species worldwide [1]. Many of them have been used in traditional medicine [2, 3]. The genus Euonymus of the family Celastraceae is reported to be a rich source of sesquiterpene alkaloids [4], sesquiterpene esters [5], sesquiterpene pyridine alkaloids [6], sesquiterpene polyol esters [7], flavonoids, and coumarins [8]. The plant species belonging to this genus has well-known medicinal activity such as cytotoxic [9], antitumor [10], immunosuppressive [11], and insecticidal [12] and insect-antifeedant activity [13], and is capable of reversing multidrug resistance in cancer cells [14]. Euonymus hamiltonianus Wall. is a small tree growing wild in Kashmir at altitudes from 3000-4000 meters. By continuing the pursuit of active principles of the Celastraceae family, particularly of the genus Euonymus, the ethyl acetate extract of the stem bark of Euonymus hamiltonianus leads to the isolation and characterization of the three new glutinane-type triterpenes 19α-glutin-5-en-19-ol (1), 2β,15α,21β-glutin-11-ene-2,15,21-triol (2), and 2β,19α-glutin-7,21-diene-2,19-diol (3). In this paper the isolation and characterization of compounds 1-3 are presented.Column chromatography of the ethyl acetate extract of the stem bark of Euonymus hamiltonianus leads to the isolation and characterization of three new pentacyclic glutinane-type triterpenes, 19α-glutin-5-en-19-ol (1), 2β,15α,21β, glutin-11-ene-2,15,21-triol (2), and 2β,19α-glutin-7,21-diene-2,19-diol (3).

The present study was designed to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic effect of methanol extract of aerial parts including stems, leaves and twigs of Aralia cachemirica and purified continentalic acid isolated from this extract against a panel of human cancer cell lines of varied tissues. Percentage of growth inhibition was evaluated by sulphorhodamine B assay. Purified continentalic acid showed moderate cytotoxicity against all the cell lines used. In contrast, the extract exhibited significant concentration dependant cytotoxicity against A-549 (lung), THP-1 (leukemia) and MCF-7 (breast) cell lines. This work highlights cytotoxic potential of this extract, which can further be explored for different constituents for their possible use autonomously or in combined manner in cancer therapy. The detailed analysis of their cytotoxicity has been presented in this paper.

Aryl azides 1 were treated with allenylmagnesium bromide (2) to generate 1,5‐disubstituted butynyl‐1H‐1,2,3‐triazoles 3 in a domino fashion, which upon CuI‐catalyzed 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition with aryl azides 4 afforded novel bis‐1H‐1,2,3‐triazoles 5 in quantitative yields (Scheme 1 and Table).

The present study embraces phytochemical investigation of the essential oil extracted from the mature seeds of Trachyspermum ammi Linn for different constituents by subjecting the oil to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The identification of the constituents is based upon retention indices and by comparison of their mass spectral fragmentation patterns against the commercial library mass spectra (Wiley, Nist etc.). Ellagic acid (EA), which is a natural phenol antioxidant, has been isolated from methanol extract from the mature seeds of Trachyspermum ammi Linn. Also, Thymol (Thl), a naturally occurring phenolic compound, has been crystallized by the reported standard procedure from oil extracted from these mature seeds. Both these compounds have been evaluated for their possible anti-cancer effect against a selected panel of human cancer cell lines by means of sulforhodamine B assay.