Possible Medicinal Plants Used by Wild Chimpanzees, and Their Physiologically Active Compounds

Antitumoral and Antimicrobial Activities of Bitter Sesquiterpene Lactones ofVernonia amygdalina, a Possible Medicinal Plant Used by Wild Chimpanzees

“…The minimum threshold level for bitterness was determined by tasting 'a filter paper (l cm 2 x 0.2 mm thick) soaked with a known amount of the test compound. 4 ) Determination of the in vitro antitumoral activity. P-388 or L-121O mouse leukemia cells (1 x 10 4 cells) were incubated in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum and a known amount of the test compound under 5% CO 2 at 37°C.…”

“…importance of the a-methylene~y lactone for this activity.6,7) However, the antitumoral activity against such leukemia 'Cells as P~388 and L-121O have not been investigated for [1][2][3][4] and their derivatives, except for the in vivo activity of the homologous compounds, vernolepin-(5) and vernomenin (6).8) Therefore, the in vitro antitumoral activity against P-388 and L-121O cells was tested for 1-4 and some of the derivatives (5-10) of 1 shown in Fig. As shown in Table, vemodalin (1) and vernolide (2) exhibited potent activity (IC so for P-388 and L-121O cells: 0.11 and 0.17 Itg/ml for 1 and 0.13 and 0.11 Itg/ml for 2, respectively), while the activity of hydroxyvernolide (3) and vernodalol (4) was weak. The lower activity of 3 compared with 2 could be explained by the loss of hydrophobicity in the acyl moiety.…”