Antimalarial activity of Artemisia annua flavonoids from whole plants and cell cultures

Cell suspension cultures developed from Artemisia annua exhibited antimalarial activity against Plasmodium faldparum in vitro both in the n-hexane extract of the plant cell culture medium and in the chloroform extract of the cells. Trace amounts of the antimalarial sesquiterpene lactone artemisinin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant cell reports 1992-11, Vol.11 (12), p.637-640
Main Authors: CHIUNG-SHEUE CHEN LIU, K, SHI-LIN YANG, ROBERTS, M. F, ELFORD, B. C, PHILLIPSON, J. D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Biotechnology
Eukaryotic cell cultures
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Methods. Procedures. Technologies
Miscellaneous
Plant cells and fungal cells
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Summary:Cell suspension cultures developed from Artemisia annua exhibited antimalarial activity against Plasmodium faldparum in vitro both in the n-hexane extract of the plant cell culture medium and in the chloroform extract of the cells. Trace amounts of the antimalarial sesquiterpene lactone artemisinin may account for the activity of the n-hexane fraction but only the methoxylated flavonoids artemetin, chrysoplenetin, chrysosplenol-D and cirsilineol can account for the activity of the chloroform extract. These purified flavonoids were found to have IC50 values at 2.4 - 6.5 × 10(-5)M against P. falciparum in vitro compared with an IC50 value of about 3 × 10(-8)M for purified artimisinin. At concentrations of 5 × 10(-6)M these flavonoids were not active against P. falciparum but did have a marked and selective potentiating effect on the antiplasmodial activity of artemisinin.
ISSN:0721-7714
1432-203X
DOI:10.1007/BF00236389