Estimation of triterpenoids from Heliotropium marifolium Koen. ex Retz. in vivo and in vitro. I. Antimicrobial screening

Abstract

The hexane extract of Heliotropium marifolium yielded a mixture of triterpenoids: beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, beta-amyrin, friedelan-3beta-ol (epifriedelenol), cycloartenone, beta-amyrin acetate, friedelin and epifriedenyl acetate. Isolated triterpenoid and reference antibiotics (gentamycin/mycostatin) were tested against selected pathogenic bacteria and fungi, e.g. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chrysogenum. The inhibition zone (IZ) and the activity index (AI) of isolated compounds were recorded and it was found that epifriedenyl acetate (IZ = 17; AI = 1.06) was the most active. The present study deals with the quantification and assessment of their growth inhibitory potency. It has been reported that cycloartenone was the major triterpenoid in both in vivo (0.54%) and in vitro (0.11%) cell cultures.

Plant use in the medicinal practices known as “strict diets” in Chazuta valley (Peruvian Amazon)

“…Friedelane triterpenoids have shown antinflammatory, analgesic (Chaturvedi et al, 1974;Duwiejua et al, 1999;Nakamura et al, 1997), antibacterial and antifungal activities (Jain and Singh, 1999;Singh and Dubey, 2001) and anti-HIV activity (Kuo and YangKio, 1997).…”

Plant Medicines for Clinical Trial

“…Used in a non-toxic dose, it influenced the function of the autonomic nervous system [46]. Some flavonoids were reported to possess anxiolytic effects and neuroprotective activities; they are capable of binding to GABAA receptors with significant affinity [47]. As examples, 6-methylapigenin is a benzodiazepine binding site ligand and 2S(-)-hesperidin has sedative and sleep-enhancing properties [48].…”

Antimicrobial, Cytotoxic, Phytotoxic and Antioxidant Potential of Heliotropium strigosum Willd.

“…No antifungal activity was displayed by the methanolic and aqueous extracts of Trichodesma zeylanicum and Anchusa italic [44]. Apart from the above consequences, different biological extracts and isolated bioactive constituents, mainly pyrrolizidine alkaloids and terpenoids from different Heliotropium species such as H. indicum [45], H. ellipticum [28,46] and H. marifolium [47], demonstrated significant antifungal activity against various pathogenic fungi. Our study reports for the first time the dichloromethane screening of H. strigosum for antifungal potential.…”