Planta Med 2015; 81 - PC8
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1545195

Anti-inflammatory steroidal saponin from Asparagus stipularis roots

AA Galala 1, AA Zaki 1, 2, SI Khan 2, IA Khan 2
  • 1Pharmacognosy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University.
  • 2National Center for Natural Product Research, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA

The phytochemical investigation of an n-butanol fraction of methanolic extract of A. stipularis Forssk. Roots resulted in isolation of steroidal saponin I for the first time from this plant. It was isolated by column chromatography using 10% methanol-water in ethyl acetate (4:3). The structure was elucidated by spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR and ESI-MS. This compound demonstrated antifungal activity against human pathogen C. neoformans with; IC50, MIC and MFC of 2.92, 5 and 10 µg/mL, respectively. The compound was evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity in a cell-based assay that determined the inhibition of iNOS. The compound inhibited iNOS with an IC50 of 4.25 µg/mL in comparison with parthenolide as the standard compound with IC50 0.76 µg/mL.

Fig. 1