Planta Med 2011; 77(14): 1594-1596
DOI: 10.1055/s-0030-1270933
Biological and Pharmacological Activity
Letters
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Antiplasmodial and Antitrypanosomal Activity of Tanshinone-Type Diterpenoids from Salvia miltiorrhiza

Sylwester Ślusarczyk1 , Stefanie Zimmermann2 , 3 , Marcel Kaiser3 , Adam Matkowski1 , Matthias Hamburger2 , Michael Adams2
  • 1Department of Pharmaceutical Biology and Botany, Medical University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
  • 2Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 3Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Further Information

Publication History

received November 12, 2010 revised February 24, 2011

accepted February 26, 2011

Publication Date:
16 March 2011 (online)

Abstract

In a medium throughput screen of 880 plant and fungal extracts for antiprotozoal activity, a dichloromethane extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza roots was active against both Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Plasmodium falciparum. With HPLC-based activity profiling in combination with on- and off-line spectroscopic methods (PDA, -MSn, HR‐MS, microprobe NMR), the active compounds were identified as tanshinone-type diterpenoids. Subsequent isolation and structure elucidation yielded the known substances miltirone (1), tanshinone II a (2), 1,2 dihydrotanshinquinone (3), methylenetanshinquinone (4), 1-oxomiltirone (5), 11-hydroxymiltiodiol (6), tanshinone I (7), methyltanshinonate (8), and cryptotanshinone (9). The IC50s of the compounds were determined against the two parasites and rat myoblast (L6) cells. They ranged from 4.1 µM to over 30 µM against P. falciparum K1 strain with selectivity indices (SI) from 0.3 to 1.9. IC50s against T. brucei rhodesiense STIB 900 were from 0.5 µM (1, 4) to over 30 µM, and 4 showed the greatest selective activity with an SI of 24.

References

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Dr. Michael Adams

Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Basel

Klingelbergstrasse 50

4056 Basel

Switzerland

Phone: +41 6 12 67 15 65

Fax: +41 6 12 67 14 74

Email: michael.adams@unibas.ch