Anticancer and
antioxidant potential of pentacyclic triterpenoids isolated from C. carandas a medicinally
important plant
Pallem Kasturi, Botcha Satyanarayana, Chrisolite Ch R. and Prattipati Subhashini
Devi
Res. J. Biotech.; Vol. 20(9); 235-245;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/209rjbt2350245; (2025)
Abstract
Carissa carandas Linn, an important medicinal plant was used for the isolation of
potent bioactive compounds from its leaves. C. carandas leaf material was shade
dried and macerated in solvents such as hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol
and then concentrated using a rotary vacuum evaporator. FRAP, DPPH and the reducing
power assays were used to measure the antioxidant activity. Isolation and purification
of compounds using column chromatography followed by spectral analysis was done
for identification. Of the four solvents used hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate
and methanol, the antioxidant potential of the methanol extract of C. carandas exhibited
high DPPH (76.22μg/mL), FRAP (46.00μg/mL) and reducing power (81.83μg/mL) activities
respectively.
Gradient elution, followed by structural analysis using UV, IR and NMR spectral
studies, resulted in the isolation of six triterpenoids, namely β-sitosterol and
stigmasterol, lupeol, betulin, betulinic acid, oleanolic acid and methoxy urosolic
acid. A comparative antioxidant activity of the isolated triterpenoids revealed
the superiority of methoxy urosolic acid over the other triterpenes. Methoxy urosolate
also exhibited anti-inflammatory (41.05%), cytotoxic (83.24%) and apoptotic potential
against the lung cancer cell line A549. Of the four extracts, methanol extract exhibited
the maximum antioxidant activity.
