Investigations toward new lead compounds from medicinally important plants*
Ashok K. Prasad1,‡, Vineet Kumar1, Pragya Arya1, Sarvesh Kumar2, Rajesh Dabur3, Naresh Singh2, Anil K. Chhillar2, Gainda L. Sharma2, Balaram Ghosh2, Jesper Wengel4, Carl E. Olsen5, and Virinder S. Parmar1
1Bioorganic Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi‑110 007, India; 2Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Mall Road, Delhi‑110 007, India; 3Department of Biomedical Sciences, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi-284128, India; 4Nucleic Acid Center, Department of Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark; 5Chemistry Department, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Copenhagen, Denmark
Abstract: Extensive phytochemical investigations on 30 Piper species growing in India and other medicinal plants have revealed the presence of a large number of novel compounds belonging to different classes. The antiviral activity of several lignans and neolignans belonging to different structural types has been evaluated against six different viral strains. Further, the effects of ethanol, chloroform, and hexane extracts of Piper longum and Piper galiatum on TNF-α induced expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) on human umbilical vein endothelial cells have been studied, a novel aromatic ester was isolated from the most active extract of P. longum. A potential antifungal compound having implications in treating aspergillosis was isolated from an important Indian medicinal plant, Datura metel.
*Paper based on a presentation at the 24th International Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products and the 4th International Congress on Biodiversity, held jointly in Delhi, India, 26-31 January 2004. Other presentations are published in this issue, pp. 1-344.