Planta Med 2013; 79 - PI113
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1352202

Phytochemical constituents of Monochoria vaginalis var. plantaginea and their antioxidative and cytotoxic activities

H Zheng 1, S Choi 2, S Kang 3, D Lee 4, O Zee 1, J Kwak 1
  • 1Sungkyunkwan University, School of Pharmacy, Suwon (440 – 746), South Korea
  • 2Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Taejeon (305 – 600), South Korea
  • 3Gachon University, College of Bionano, Seongnam (461 – 701), South Korea
  • 4Dongguk University, College of Science and Technology, Gyeongju (780 – 714), South Korea

The aquatic plant Monochoria vaginalis var. plantaginea (Roxb.) Solms (Pontederiaceae) is a traditional herbal medicine, and widely distributed in Asian countries including Korea, China, Japan, India, and Malaysia. The whole plant is considered as a functional food and has also been used for treatment of dysentery, enteritis, acute tonsillitis, gum abscesses, erysipelas, boils. Juice of the leaves is taken for coughs and that of the root for stomach and liver complaints, asthma and toothache. In our continuing studies to find bioactive compounds from natural products, several structures were isolated from the whole plant of Monochoria vaginalis var. plantaginea. Among five fractions of the MeOH extract, the n-hexane fraction exhibited comparatively higher antioxidative and cytotoxic activities than the other fractions. The CH2Cl2 and BuOH fractions also showed strong antioxidative activity. Ten compounds were isolated from the n-hexane and CH2Cl2 fractions, and their structures were identified as cholest-4-en-3,6-dione, stigmast-4-ene-3,6-dione, methoxyanigorufone, (10Z)-1-(2,6-dihydroxyphenyl)octadec-10-en-1-one, 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-7-phenyl-(6E)-6-hepten-3-one, (+)-dehydrovomifoliol, 4-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile, (6R,9S)-vomifoliol, (6S,9S)-vomifoliol, (3S,5R,6R,7E,9R)-5,6-epoxy-3,9-dihydroxy-7-megastigmene by comparison of their spectral data with literature values. Cytotoxic and antioxidative activities for solvent fractions and isolated compounds were evaluated using SRB (sulforhodamin B) assay against human tumor cell lines (A549, SK-OV-3, SK-MEL-2, and HCT15), and ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) assay, respectively.