Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Chemical Composition and Cytotoxic Activities of Petroleum Ether Fruit Extract of Fruits of Brucea javanica (Simarubaceae

Zhiwei Su^1,2, Huijuan Huang³, Jinlian Li^1,4, Yuehui Zhu¹, Riming Huang¹, Samuel X Qiu¹

¹Program for Natural Product Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery, Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650; ²University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049; ³Guangdong provincial Key Lab of Biotechnology for Plant Development, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631; ⁴Chinese Academy of Science â€“ Foshan Biotech and Pharmaceutical Center, Foshan 528231, Peopleâ€™s Republic of China.

For correspondence:- Samuel Qiu Email: sxqiu@scbg.ac.cn Tel:+862037081190

Received: 5 October 2012 Accepted: 29 June 2013 Published: 18 October 2013

Citation: Su Z, Huang H, Li J, Zhu Y, Huang R, Qiu SX. Chemical Composition and Cytotoxic Activities of Petroleum Ether Fruit Extract of Fruits of Brucea javanica (Simarubaceae. Trop J Pharm Res 2013; 12(5):735-742 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v12i5.11

© 2013 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the chemical composition and antitumor activity of the petroleum ether extract of the dried ripe fruits of Brucea javanica.

Methods: The composition of petroleum ether extract was analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) and their antitumor activities were determined by MTT assay.

Results: GC/MS spectrometry results indicate that the petroleum ether extract was a mixture of esters, fatty acids, sterides, pregnanones, terpenes, alkaloids, alkenes, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes and other compounds. The results also revealed the significant antitumor activity of the extract with IC₅₀of 9.14, 12.45, 15.15, 16.13, 22.26, and 27.97 μg/mL against A549, CNE, MCF-7, NCI-H460, HepG2, and KB-3-1 cell lines, respectively.

Conclusion: The study establishes the chemical composition and cytotoxic activity of the petroleum ether extract of the plant fruits. There is need for further investigations to isolate more potent compounds and structurally modify the known compounds to retain activity and lower toxicity and thus lead to the possible development of Brucea javanica oil.

Keywords: Brucae javanica, Mass spectra, Cytotoxic activity, Anti-tumour