Two novel lupane triterpenoids from Paullinia pinnata L. with fibroblast stimulatory activity.

OBJECTIVES: Novel lupane triterpenoids from Paullinia pinnata L., a Ghanaian plant traditionally used for wound healing, were examined for in-vitro fibroblast stimulatory activity using the 142BR cell line. METHODS: Bioactivity-guided isolation of the crude extract of P. pinnata L. was carried out in order to determine the nature of the compounds responsible for the stimulation of fibroblast proliferation. KEY FINDINGS: Two novel compounds were isolated and characterised, namely, 6beta-(3'-methoxy-4'-hydroxybenzoyl)-lup-20(29)-ene-one (1) and 6beta-(3'-methoxy-4'-hydroxybenzoyl)-lup-20(29)-ene-ol (2), together with three known compounds, friedelin (3), beta-sitosterol (4) and beta-sitosterol-3-D-glucoside (5). The methanol extract of the roots of P. pinnata caused a significant in-vitro increase (94%) in 142BR cell line proliferation at 20 microg/ml compared with the control. CONCLUSIONS: Compounds 1 and 2, which were isolated from the active chloroform fraction, have not previously been reported and showed a dose-dependent increase in proliferation of 142BR cells up to 3 microM; compounds 3, 4 and 5 had no effect on the 142BR cell line at the concentrations tested.