• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 1995

MeOH extract of the leaves of Xanthium strumarium L. were found to have cytotoxic activities against five human tumor cell lines. Cytotoxicity-guided chromatographic fractionation led to the isolation of the ${\alpha}-methylene$ containing sesquiterpenes, xanthatin, 8-epi-xanthatin and 8-epi-tomentosin. 8-epi-Xanthatin was found to be far more cytotoxic than 8-epi-tomentosin, which lacks the conjugated enone moiety present in 8-epi-xanthatin.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.540-543
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• 1998

The nitric oxide (NO) produced in large amounts by inducible nitric oxide synthase is known to be responsible for the vasodilation and hypotension observed in septic shock. We have found that 8-epi-xanthatin from Xanthium strumarium L. inhibited the production of NO in LPS-activated RAW 264.7 cells ($IC_{50}$ value was 1.5 ${\mu}$M). This activity was resulted from the suppressing of inducible nitric oxide synthase enzyme expression.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 2005

Epi-xanthatin analogs containing hydrophilic substituents such as carboxylic acid, alcohol, morpholine, amino acid, and glucose derivatives were synthesized and their in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo antitumor activity were evaluated. The target compounds were generally cytotoxic against tumor cell lines of human origin with $ED_{50}$ values of $0.1{\sim}30{\mu}g/ml$, except the highly hydrophilic analog 6 containing aspartic acid. Contrary to the potent cytotoxicity weakly hydrophilic analogs 2 and 8 were not active in vivo, or even toxic to the test animals. As a result, hydrophilic analog of epi-xanthatin did not show in vitro cytotoxicity and hydrophobic analogs did not show in vivo antitumor activity, thus it is presumed that amphiphilic analogs or those with medium hydrophilicity would exhibit the antitumor potency in vivo.