Planta Med 2014; 80 - P2B30
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1394907

Antiproliferative activity of Artemisia asiatica cultivated in Central Europe

Z Hajdú 1, J Hohmann 1, P Forgo 1, I Máthé 1, 2, J Molnár 3, I Zupkó 3
  • 1Institute of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, Eötvös u. 6, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary
  • 2Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Alkotmány u 2 – 4, H-6123 Vácrátót, Hungary
  • 3Institute of Pharmacodynamics and Biopharmacy, University of Szeged, Eötvös u. 6, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary

As a part of the search for metabolites with antiproliferative activity of the Asteraceae family, Artemisia asiatica, a plant with Asian origin and harvested in Hungary was studied. The aerial parts of the plant were extracted with MeOH at room temperature and the extract was partitioned between n-hexane, CHCl3 and H2O. The CHCl3 extract, exhibiting high cell growth inhibitory activities against a tumor cell panel, was fractionated in consecutive chromatographic steps under the guidance of antiproliferative assays. Multistep chromatography of these fractions including CC, CPC, preparative TLC and gel-filtration, guided by bioassay, led to the isolation of 15 compounds. The structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis. This isolation procedure afforded the highly oxygenated guaianolide sesquiterpenes [3β,4β,10α-trihydroxy-1α,2α-epoxy-5α,7αH-guai-11(13)-en-12,6α-olide, artecanin], chlorinated guaianolides [3β-chloro-4α,10α -dihydroxy-1α,2α-epoxy-5α,7αH-guai-11(13)-en-12,6α-olide and 3α-chloro-4β,10α-dihydroxy-1β,2β-epoxy-5α,7αH-guai-11(13)-en-12,6α-olide], the seco-guaianolide iso-seco-tanapartholide methyl ester, the germacranolide ridentin, the eudesmanolide ridentin B, and artemisia alcohol glucoside. Furthermore, flavonoids: eupatilin, hispidulin, jaceosidin, cirsilineol, 5,7,4',5'-tetrahydroxy-6,3'-dimethoxy-flavon, 6-methoxytricin and chrysoplenetin were isolated. All the terpenes were detected in this plant for the first time, and artemisia alcohol glucoside was identified as a new natural product. Antiproliferative effects were measured on HeLa (cervix adenocarcinoma), MCF7 (breast adenocarcinoma), A431 (skin epidermoid carcinoma and A2780 (ovarian carcinoma) cells, using the MTT assay. It was stated that the pronounced inhibitory effect of the CHCl3 extract of A. asiatica (10 and 30 µg/ml) on the proliferation of human tumor cell lines HeLa (68.60 ± 1.55 and 33.55 ± 0.98%, respectively), MCF7 (75.70 ± 1.98 and 57.92 ± 1.83, respectively), A431 (75.26 ± 1.31 and 72.46 ± 1.41%, respectively) may be attributed mainly to flavonoids and terpenes.