HPTLC-based quantification of camptothecin in Ophiorrhiza species of the southern Western Ghats in India

Renjith Rajan,Rajani Kurup,Sibi Chirakkadamoolayil Varghese,Ramaswamy Venkataraman,Roja Gopalakrishnan,Sabulal Baby,Krishnan Satheeshkumar,Youcef Mehellou

doi:10.1080/23312009.2016.1275408

Abstract

AbstractCamptothecin (CPT), a modified monoterpene indole alkaloid, is a potential anticancer drug, and due to high demand, search for its new plant-based sources is a priority. Genus Ophiorrhiza is a candidate group in the search for new resources of CPT. Here, CPT contents in 38 Ophiorrhiza accessions, belonging to 11 species and 3 varieties, collected from the southern Western Ghats region in India were quantified by HPTLC-densitometry. Ophiorrhiza mungos (396.54 μg/g, dr. wt.) and O. mungos var. angustifolia (373.19 μg/g, dr. wt.) were the two best CPT sources among the screened species/varieties. O. rugosa var. decumbens (18.55 μg/g, dr. wt.) and O. hirsutula (17.14 μg/g, dr. wt.) showed moderate contents of CPT. This is the first systematic CPT screening of O. hirsutula, O. barnesii, O. incarnata, O. radicans and O. villosa. This study shows the significance of choosing high CPT-yielding ecotypes/chemotypes of Ophiorrhiza species or varieties for commercial purposes.

Highlights

Camptothecin (CPT) (Figure 1), a topoisomerase inhibitor, was first isolated from Camptotheca acuminata in 1958 (Wall et al, 1966), and it became a potential anticancer drug through a series of Sabulal Baby ABOUT THE AUTHORDr Sabulal Baby is Principal Scientist and Head at the Phytochemistry and Phytopharmacology Division of Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute at Thiruvananthapuram in India
A total of 82 accessions of 14 species and 3 varieties in genus Ophiorrhiza collected from the southern Western Ghats region in India were screened for CPT using HPTLC-densitometry
We found O. mungos and O. mungos var. angustifolia as the two best sources of CPT in genus Ophiorrhiza

Summary

Introduction

Camptothecin (CPT) (Figure 1), a topoisomerase inhibitor, was first isolated from Camptotheca acuminata in 1958 (Wall et al, 1966), and it became a potential anticancer drug through a series of Sabulal Baby. A total of 82 accessions (phase I 44, phase II 38) of 14 species and 3 varieties in genus Ophiorrhiza collected from the southern Western Ghats region in India were screened for CPT using HPTLC-densitometry. In the first phase of this work, we reported CPT contents in 44 accessions belonging to 9 Ophiorrhiza species, and 3 varieties (Renjith et al, 2013). CPT contents in plant sources (C. acuminata) and in their tissue cultured systems were analyzed by HPLC-based techniques (López-Meyer et al, 1994; Sankar-Thomas & Lieberei, 2011). In the second phase of this screening program, we report the quantification of CPT contents in 38 accessions of Ophiorrhiza, collected from southern Western Ghats, belonging to 11 species and 3 varieties by HPTLC-densitometry

Results and discussion

Experimental

Conclusions