Title : Isolation of anticancer compound from arisaema jacquemontii
Abstract:
Arisaema jacquemontii Blume (Araceae) is found in the Northern parts of Pakistan and Kashmir (1). Though the plant is known as toxic in folklore, it finds use in traditional system of medicine to treat various ailments (2). Our investigations on the extracts of the plants by employing mechanism based bioassay have shown that the dichloromethane and methanol extracts of the plant contain DNA damage inducing components (3). The mechanism based approach utilizes DNA repair or recombination- deficient mutants of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have been investigating the plant for its chemical constituents and biological activities. Several new and known chemical constituents have been isolated from the plant. Continuing our researches, we have isolated a cytotoxic triterpenoid, 2-hydroxy diplopterol. The extracts of the plant have also shown promising activity in various fungicidal bioassays. Structures of the new compounds were determined on the basis of spectral studies while known compounds were identified on the basis of their spectral data and literature evidences. Account of the research work which leads to the isolation of the anticancer triterpenoid will be presented.
