Bioactivity of the lanostane-type of triterpenoid from Protorhus longifolia stem bark

Abstract

Thabo Corteze, Steve Villers and Miriam Gordimer

This work evaluated the anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory activity of a lanosteryl triterpene (3βhydroxylanosta-9,24-dien-21-oic acid) isolated from Protorhus longifolia stem bark. Tail bleeding time assay was used to investigate the ex vivo anticoagulant activity. The effect of the triterpene on the thermally induced aggregation of malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and citrate synthase (CS) was studied. The anti-inflammatory activity of the triterpene was investigated using the cotton pellet-induced granuloma model in rats. Granuloma formation was measured following 7 days of oral administration of the experimental rats (two groups) with the triterpene at 50 and 250 mg/kg body weight (b.w). The compound (50 mg/kg) significantly (p < 0.05) increased bleeding time in rats by up to 7 min as compared to 2.5 min observed in the normal control group. It also improved the activity of Hsp70 on MDH and CS aggregation suppression. The reduction of the granuloma formation by up to 40.3% was observed. It is apparent that the triterpene has potential to inhibit the aggregation of proteins