Natural and semi-synthetic clerodanes of Croton cajucara and their cytotoxic effects against ehrlich carcinoma and human K562 leukemia cells

• Autor(a) principal: Maciel,Maria Aparecida M.
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Martins,Jenilce R., Pinto,Angelo C., Kaiser,Carlos R., Esteves-Souza,Andressa, Echevarria,Aurea
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532007000200022
• topic: Croton cajucara; trans-dehydrocrotonin; cajucarinolide; isocajucarinolide; cytotoxic activity

The clerodane-type diterpene, trans-dehydrocrotonin (1) the major component of Croton cajucara has shown striking correlation with its therapeutic use in traditional folk medicine. Phytochemical investigations led to the isolation of the metabolites 1, cajucarinolide (6), isocajucarinolide (7), trans-crotonin (2), trans-cajucarin B (3), cis-cajucarin B (4), trans-cajucarin A (5), N-methyltyrosine, vanillic acid and 4-hydroxy-benzoic acid. 6 and 7 were synthesized in good yield by regiospecific oxidation of 1 using singlet-oxygen. All clerodanes were studied for their cytotoxic effects against human K562 leukemia and Ehrlich carcinoma cells. Ehrlich carcinoma assays with IC50 = 166 µM (1), 164 µM (2), 65 µM (6) and 10 µM (7) related to cell growth inhibitory effects were dose dependent. Furthermore, moderate cytotoxic activity against K562 leukemia cells was observed with IC50 = 38 µM (3), 33 µM (5), 36 µM (6) and 43 µM (7). The semi-synthetic 2, 6 and 7 showed similar results when compared to the corresponding natural clerodanes.