Bioassay-guided isolation of deoxypodophyllotoxin, the cytotoxic constituent of Juniperus chinensis

• Main Authors: Ali, Abdul Manaf, Ismail, Intan Safinar, Mohamed Mackeen, Muhammad Mukram, El-Sharkawy, Saleh Hassan, Takahata, Kyoya, Kanzaki, Hiroshi, Kawazu, Kazuyoshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Pharmacognosy 1998
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/51340/1/51340.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/51340/; http://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/ArticleFullRecord.jsp?cn=E1HSBY_1998_v4n3_180

The ethanol extract from the leaves of Juniperus chinensis was found to be cytotoxic towards HeLa cells. Bioassay-guided fractionation of the EtOAc soluble faction directed by the microtitration cytotoxic assay revealed that the cytotoxic compound was deoxypodophyllotoxin. All the tumour cell lines tested (KU8112F-chronic mylogeneous leukemia, TK 10-renal carcinoma, UACC 62-melanoma and CEM-SS - T-lymphoblastic leukemia) were found to be susceptible to deoxypodophyllotoxin, however, the minimum effective concentration (MEC) required to reduce the cell population by 100 percent was different between cell lines.