Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2005, Volume 77, No. 1, pp. 25-40

Pure Appl. Chem., 2005, Vol. 77, No. 1, pp. 25-40

doi:10.1351/pac200577010025

Investigations toward new lead compounds from medicinally important plants*

Ashok K. Prasad^1,‡, 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.

Keywords: antifungal activity; anti-inflammatory activity; aspergillosis; ICAM-1 inhibition; lignans; long-chain esters and amides; medicinal plants; neolignans; piper species.

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All articles from the 24th International Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products and the 4th International Congress on Biodiversity, Delhi, India, 26–31 January 2004.