Planta Med 2008; 74(2): 147-150
DOI: 10.1055/s-2008-1034293
Pharmacology
Original Paper
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Cancer Chemopreventive Activity of Terpenoid Coumarins from Ferula Species

Mehrdad Iranshahi1 , Farhad Kalategi1 , Ramin Rezaee1 , Ahmad Reza  Shahverdi2 , Chihiro Ito3 , Hiroshi Furukawa3 , Harukuni Tokuda4 , Masataka Itoigawa5
  • 1Department of Pharmacognosy and Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Mashhad, Iran
  • 2Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Science Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical Sciences/University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 3Faculty of Pharmacy, Meijo University, Tempaku, Nagoya, Japan
  • 4Department of Molecular Biochemistry, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
  • 5Tokai Gakuen University, Nagoya, Japan
Further Information

Publication History

Received: August 6, 2007 Revised: December 25, 2007

Accepted: January 3, 2008

Publication Date:
31 January 2008 (online)

Abstract

Several natural products have been found to have anti-tumor promoting activity. In the present study, we carried out a primary screening of ten terpenoid coumarins isolated from plants of the Ferula species, examining their possible inhibitory effects on Epstein-Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) in Raji cells. Auraptene (7-geranyloxycoumarin, 1) and umbelliprenin (7-farnesyloxycoumarin, 2) were found to significantly inhibit EBV-EA activation and preserved the high viability of Raji cells, suggesting that they might be valuable anti-tumor-promoting agents (IC50 8.3 and 9.1 nM, respectively). Our findings revealed that the presence of a prenyl moiety in the terpenoid coumarins plays an important role in anti-tumor promoting activity as previously reported for xanthones, coumarins, flavonoids and phenylpropanoids.

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Dr. Mehrdad Iranshahi

Department of Pharmacognosy and Biotechnology

Biotechnology Research Center

Faculty of Pharmacy

Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS)

P.O.Box: 91775-1365

Mashhad

Iran

Phone: +98-511-882-3255-66

Fax: +98-511-882-3251

Email: Iranshahim@mums.ac.ir