Antiproliferative, apoptotic and antimutagenic activity of isolated compounds from Polyalthia cerasoides seeds

Phytochemical investigation of the petroleum ether extract fraction of Polyalthia cerasoides seeds led to the isolation of two phytosterols (alpha-spinasterol and spinasterol) and a clerodane di-terpenoid. The structures of these compounds were elucidated using IR, H-1-NMR, C-13-NMR and Mass spectral analysis. Further, these compounds were tested for antiproliferative action against CACO-2 cell line and apoptotic action was determined by nuclear staining and DNA fragmentation analysis. The results showed that the compounds exhibited antiproliferative action at various concentrations with an IC50 value of 28.6 +/- 4.34 nM/ml, 57.7 +/- 6.81 nM/ml and 60.0 +/- 7.10 nM/ml for clerodane diterpenoid, spinasterol and cc-Spinasterol respectively. Furthermore, the isolated compounds were screened for antimutagenic effect against methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) induced mutation. Phytosterols showed protective effect, whereas clerodane diterpenoid was less effective to MMS induced chromosomal aberrations. Our research contributes to the characterization of phytochemical constituents and to understand the ability of these compounds to antiproliferative and antimutagenic responses from the seed extracts. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier GmbH.