Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Isolation of squarrosal and squarrosol compounds from methanol root extract of Ruellia squarrosa (Acanthaceae)

Khurram Afzal^1,2 , Muhammad Uzair¹, Bashir Ahmad Chaudhary¹, Saeed Akhtar², Ashfaq Ahmad³, Samina Afzal¹

¹Faculty of Pharmacy; ²Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Baha u din Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan; ³Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298, USA.

For correspondence:- Khurram Afzal Email: khurram.afzal@bzu.edu.pk

Accepted: 21 March 2018 Published: 30 April 2018

Citation: Afzal K, Uzair M, Chaudhary BA, Akhtar S, Ahmad A, Afzal S. Isolation of squarrosal and squarrosol compounds from methanol root extract of Ruellia squarrosa (Acanthaceae). Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(4):647-652 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i4.12

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To identify, characterize and structurally elucidate bioactive compounds from root of Ruellia squarrosa.

Methods: One kilogram of crude Ruellia squarrosa root was shade dried for 14 days, ground to a fine powder and subjected to a methanol extraction. The resultant extract underwent column chromatography for further purification. The isolated compounds were subjected to ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV), infra-red (IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR), ¹³C–NMR and high resolution electron ionization mass spectrometry (HR-EI-MS) for the identification, characterization and structural elucidation of bioactive compounds. The most active compounds were tested for anticancer activities against human prostate cancer cell.

Results: Two active compounds, squarrosol and squarrosal, were obtained with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of 15.6 and 26.6 μg/mL, respectively, against human prostate cancer cell lines. Squarrasol showed a significantly (p < 0.05) greater inhibition of cell proliferation than the same dose of squarrasal.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that extracts of Ruellia squarrosa containing the bioactive compounds, squarrosol and squarrosal, can potentially be developed for the treatment of human prostate cancer.

Keywords: Ruellia squarrosa, Prostate cancer, Squarrosol, Squarrosal, Anit-proliferative