Triterpenoid Acids as Important Antiproliferative Constituents of European Elderberry Fruits

• Published in: Nutrition and cancer Vol. 69; no. 4; pp. 643 - 651
• Main Authors: Gleńsk, Michał, Czapińska, Elżbieta, Woźniak, Marta, Ceremuga, Ireneusz, Włodarczyk, Maciej, Terlecki, Grzegorz, Ziółkowski, Piotr, Seweryn, Ewa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis 19-05-2017; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Acetates - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - pharmacology; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Movement - drug effects; Cell Proliferation - drug effects; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor - methods; Humans; Inhibitory Concentration 50; MCF-7 Cells - drug effects; Oleanolic Acid - analysis; Oleanolic Acid - pharmacology; Plant Extracts - analysis; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Plant Extracts - pharmacology; Sambucus - chemistry; Sambucus nigra; Triterpenes - analysis; Triterpenes - chemistry; Triterpenes - pharmacology; Ursolic Acid
• ISSN: 0163-5581; 1532-7914
• DOI: 10.1080/01635581.2017.1295085

In Europe, both the fruits and flowers of Sambucus nigra L. have been used against cold, as well as laxative, diaphoretic, and diuretic remedies. There are also a number of commercially available food products that contain elderberry juice, puréed or dried elderberries. Recent comprehensive literature data on pharmacology and chemistry of Sambuci fructus have encouraged us to screen extracts with different polarities from this plant material against cancer cell lines. The cytotoxic activity of the ethyl acetate and aqueous acetone extracts from elderberries as well as detected triterpenoids on human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (LoVo) and human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) was investigated by sulforhodamine B assay. Moreover, cell migration assay was conducted for triterpenoid fraction and pure compounds. Aqueous acetone extract possessed much lower IC
50
value in cancer cell lines compared to ethyl acetate extract. The latter manifested high cytotoxicity against studied cell lines, suggesting that nonpolar compounds are responsible for the cytotoxic activity. Indeed, the phytochemical analysis revealed that ursolic and oleanolic acids are the main triterpenoids in the mentioned extract of which ursolic acid showed the highest activity with IC
50
values of 10.7 µg/mL on MCF-7 and 7.7 µg/mL on LoVo cells.