Biological Properties of <i>Thuja Orientalis</i> Linn

Abstract

Thuja orientalis (Commonly-Morpankhi, Family-Cupressaceae) is an evergreen, monoecious trees or shrubs used in various forms of traditional medicines and homeopathy in various ways. In traditional practices Thuja is used for treatment of bronchial catarrh, enuresis, cystitis, psoriasis, uterine carcinomas, amenorrhea and rheumatism. Recent researches in different parts of the world have shown that T. orientalis and its active component thujone have the great potential against a various health problems. T. orientalis preparations can be efficiently used against microbial/worm infection. It can be used as antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory agent. Instead of these effects, it can be also used as insecticidal, molluscicidal and nematicidal activity against different pests. The present review highlights the some important biological properties of T. orientalis.

Antibacterial activity of Kumaun Himalayan Biota orientalis L. leaf extracts

“…It is interesting to note that these strains are responsible for various plant diseases like crown gall, leaf blight, leaf spot and rot disease; therefore the present findings would be useful in curing various human and plant bacterial disease. Recently, Srivastava et al (2012), reviewed biological properties of B. orientalis and concluded that it has the great potentiality against a number of health problems namely: bacterial, fungal and worm infections. Relying upon the present findings it is clear that all extracts had very promising results against the tested bacterial pathogenic strains in comparison to synthetic drugs Ampicillin and Erythromycin.…”

Bioactive Sesquiterpenes from the Essential Oil of Thuja orientalis

“…1). Herein we report the isolation and structural elucidation of isolates (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11) propane ring in the molecule [11]. The 13 C NMR spectrum (l " Table 1) in combination with DEPT showed four tertiary methyls, three methines, four methylenes including a characteristic signal for the cyclopropane ring at δ C 10.9 [11], four quaternary carbons, and one methoxy carbon signals.…”

“…The full assignments of 1 H and 13 C NMR chemical shifts for thujopsadiene (4) were obtained by 2D-NMR for the first time. All compounds (1-11) showed antiproliferative activities against the SK-OV-3 and SK-MEL-2 cell lines with IC 50 values of 5. compounds 1,3,4,7,8, and 9 significantly inhibited nitric oxide production in lipopolysaccharide-activated BV-2 cells with IC 50 values of 3.93-17.85 µM without cell toxicity. …”

“…Previous phytochemical investigations on this plant revealed the presence of diverse chemical constituents. In particular, this tree is rich in essential oils that have been used to treat fungus infections, cancer, moles, and parasitic worms [4]. Essential oils of T. orientalis contain many mono-and sesquiterpenoids as their chemical constituents [5][6][7][8][9].…”

“…The cytotoxic activities of the isolates (1-11) were evaluated by determining their inhibitory effects on human tumor cell lines (A549, SK-OV-3, SK-MEL-2, and HCT-15) using the SRB bioassay [18]. The essential oils of this plant have been used to treat cancer [4], and we have recently identified the cytotoxic diterpenoids from this plant [10]. The results (l " , and 10; B: 2 and 4; C: 7, 9, and 11) with the same skeletal structure, the presence of a Δ 4,5 -double bond in the skeleton of this sesquiterpene may be critical to increase cytotoxic activity against the tested cell lines as compounds 4-6 and 9 with the Δ 4,5 -double bond in each group (A, B, and C) had a higher cytotoxicity, compared to the other compounds, though more related sesquiterpenes need to be tested to confirm this hypothesis.…”