Sesquiterpenes from the Rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria and their Cytotoxicity against Leukemic Cell Lines

Abstract

Phytochemical investigation of the rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria led to the isolation of five sesquiterpenes. Through NMR, IR, UV and GC-MS spectroscopic analysis, they were identified as three guaiane type sesquiterpenes (curcumenol, isoprocurcumenol, and procurcumenol), one caraborane type sesquiterpene (curcumenone), and one germacrane type sesquiterpene (zederone). All the compounds were subjected to cytotoxicity test against mouse myelomonocytic leukemia cells (WEHI-3), promyelocytic human leukemia cells (HL-60) and normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) cell lines by MTT assay. Procurcumenol showed the strongest inhibition of WEHI-3 and HL-60 cells with IC50 values of 25.6 and 106.8 μM, respectively. However, all these compounds showed cytotoxicity towards HUVEC cells with IC50 values in the range of 16.3 to 50.0 μM, and procurcumenol being the most toxic.