Active ingredients and anticancer potential in Eupatorium clematideum

Certain species of the genus Eupatorium (Asteraceae) have been used as antimalarial, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and immunostimulant agents for decades. Eupatorium clematideum (Wall. ex DC.) Sch. Bip. var. gracillimum (Hayata) C.-I Peng & S. W. Chung is an endemic plant in Taiwan. However, the pharmacological activites of this species have not been studied so far. The present research focuses on the analysis of active ingredients of Eupatorium clematideum and their antiproliferaive properties.

Extract from the whole plant of Eupatorium clematideum was purified by chromatographic methods and active ingredients as well as anticancer potential were investigated. Two thymol derivatives, 8-methoxy-9-O-angeloylthymol and 8,10-epoxy-9-acetoxy thymol angelate were identified from the EtOAc-soluble fraction. Crude extracts and the two thymol derivatives were treated on four different cancer cell lines, i.e. KB (human nasopharyngeal carcinoma), CAL-27 (human oral tongue cancer), Colon (human colon cancer) and A549 (human lung epidermoid) to realize the anticancer potential. Preliminary results showed that both crude extracts and 8,10-epoxy-9-acetoxy thymol angelate exhibited significant cytotoxicity activity against the four cancer cell lines. Further studies on the secondary metabolites from this plant shall be carried out to reveal the mechanisms of anticancer abilities.