Abstract
While anticancer properties of Simarouba glauca (SG, commonly known as Paradise tree) are well documented in ancient literature, the underlying mechanisms leading to cancer cell death begin to emerge very recently. The leaves of SG have been used as potential source of anticancer agents in traditional medicine. Recently attempts have been made to isolate anticancer agents from the leaves of SG using solvent extraction, which identified quassinoids as the molecules with tumoricidal activity. However, it is not known whether the anti-cancer potential of SG leaves is just because of quassinoids alone or any other phytochemicals also contribute for the potency of SG leaf extracts. Therefore, SG leaves were first extracted with hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, 70% ethanol, water and anti-cancer potential (for inhibiting colorectal cancer (CRC) cells HCT-116 and HCT-15 proliferation) determined using Sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay. The chloroform fraction with maximal anticancer activity was further fractionated by activity-guided isolation procedure and structure of the most potent compound determined using spectral analysis. Analysis of the structural characterization data showed the presence of tricaproin (TCN). TCN inhibited CRC cells growth in a time- and dose dependent manner but not the normal cell line BEAS-2B. Mechanistically, TCN reduced oncogenic Class-I Histone deacetylases (HDACs) activity, followed by inducing apoptosis in cells. In conclusion, the anti-cancer potential of SG is in part due to the presence of TCN in the leaves.
Highlights
Simarouba glauca DC (S. glauca, S.G), commonly known as laxmitaru and paradise tree, belongs to Simaroubaceae family (Govindaraju et al, 2009, NGPS)
In this study, leaves of Simarouba glauca were extracted with solvents of increasing polarity and anti-cancer activity screen performed, which identified chloroform extract as a better source for compounds with potent anti-cancer activity (Rivero-Cruz et al, 2005; Puranik et al, 2017)
Since short chain fatty acids such as butyrate are known to inhibit Histone deacetylases (HDACs), the ability of tricaproin and hexanoic acid were tested for their potency to reduce HDAC activity (Kuefer et al, 2004; Nande and Claudio, 2014)
Summary
Simarouba glauca DC (S. glauca, S.G), commonly known as laxmitaru and paradise tree, belongs to Simaroubaceae family (Govindaraju et al, 2009, NGPS). A separate study isolating anticancer constituents using bio activity-guided fractionation of chloroform extract of S. glauca twigs reported the presence of six canthin-6-one type alkaloid derivatives – (1) canthin-6-one; (2) 2-methoxycanthin-6-one; (3) 9-methoxycanthin-6-one; (4) 2-hydroxycanthin-6-one; (5) 4,5-dimethoxycanthin-6-one; and (6) 4,5-dihydroxycanthin-6-one; a limonoid, melianodiol, an acyclic squalene-type triterpenoid, 14-deacetyleurylene, two coumarins – scopoletin and fraxidin, and two triglycerides – triolein and trilinolein. Canthin-6-one, canthine-6-one dimethoxy derivatives from wood extract and showed their potential to inhibit human breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and SK-BR-3 at 2.0 μg/ml and 5.5 μg/ml respectively (Reynertson et al, 2011). All these studies conclude that the extracts of SG contain potential anticancer agents
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