Phytochemicals from Carissa carandas with potent cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities.

Six natural products (1-6) were isolated from the fresh leaves of Carissa carandas including ursolic acid (1), ursolic acid-γ-lactone (2), 27-O-Z-p-coumaroyl ursolic acid (3), 23-hydroxy ursolic acid (4), uvaol (5) and ursolic aldehyde (6). Their structure elucidation was done by modern spectroscopic techniques including 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and comparison with reported data. All compounds were known, while 2-4 were isolated for the first time from the genus Carissa. Isolated compounds were screened for their cytotoxic via MTT assay and anti-inflammatory potential via luminol-enhanced chem-iluminescence assay. Compounds 3 and 4 showed potent activity against lung cancer cell line (NCI-H460), and 4 showed potent anti-inflammatory activity against reactive oxygen species production from human whole blood phagocytes. Compound 5 displayed good selective cytotoxicity against NCI-H460 and did not provoke cytotoxicity against normal cell line upto 250 µM. Compounds 3-5 were identified as potential anti-cancer drug leads.

In vitro assessment of anti - cutaneous leishmaniasis activity of some Sudanese plants.

Examination of crude methanol extracts of four Sudanese plants (Azadirachta indica, Acacia nilotica, Balanites aegyptiaca and Allium sativa) revealed that only three species had a considerable in-vitro anti-leishmanial activity on Leishmania major promastigotes. The plants Azadrachta indica, Allium sativa, and Acacia nilotica gave a LC50 of 10.2, 4.94, and 89.38 microg/ml, respectively. Extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca had a moderate biological activity on L major promastigotes.