Arseculeratne, S. N., Gunatilaka, A., & Panabokke, R. G. (1981). Studies on medicinal plants of Sri Lanka: Occurrence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids and hepatotoxic properties in some traditional medicinal herbs. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 4(2), 159-177.
PMID: 7311596;Abstract:
There is a paucity of data on the occurrence of hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in medicinal plants, and there are no data on the hepatotoxic properties of herbal medicines that are used in the traditional pharmacopoiea of Sri Lanka and other Asian and African countries. In view of the extensive consumption of these herbs and the occurrence of chronic liver diseases including hepatocellular cancer in this and other countries of South Asia, we have screened fifty medicinal plants for pyrrolizidine alkaloids and have obtained positive results with three species, namely Crotalaria verrucosa L., Holarrhena antidysenterica (L.) Br., and Cassia auriculata L. Feeding trials in rats with materials from these three species produced liver lesions - disruption of the centrilobular veins, congestion or haemorrhage in the centrilobular sinusoids, centrilobular or focal hepatocellular necrosis - and histopathology in the lungs and kidneys which were compatible with the action of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. The presence of alkaloids in C. auriculata has not been previously reported nor has the presence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in H. antidysenterica. It is suggested that the consumption of herbal medicines that contain pyrrólizidine alkaloids could contribute to the high incidence of chronic liver disease including primary hepatocellular cancer in Asian and African countries. © 1981.
Kang, M. J., Wu, T., Wijeratne, E. M., Lau, E. C., Mason, D. J., Mesa, C., Tillotson, J., Zhang, D. D., Gunatilaka, A. A., La Clair, J. J., & Chapman, E. (2014). Functional chromatography reveals three natural products that target the same protein with distinct mechanisms of action. Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology, 15(14), 2125-31.
Access to lead compounds with defined molecular targets continues to be a barrier to the translation of natural product resources. As a solution, we developed a system that uses discrete, recombinant proteins as the vehicles for natural product isolation. Here, we describe the use of this functional chromatographic method to identify natural products that bind to the AAA+ chaperone, p97, a promising cancer target. Application of this method to a panel of fungal and plant extracts identified rheoemodin, 1-hydroxydehydroherbarin, and phomapyrrolidone A as distinct p97 modulators. Excitingly, each of these molecules displayed a unique mechanism of p97 modulation. This discovery provides strong support for the application of functional chromatography to the discovery of protein modulators that would likely escape traditional high-throughput or phenotypic screening platforms.
G., A., Broughton, H. B., Attwood, S. V., & A., A. (1986). Two total syntheses of showdomycin and related studies. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 51(4), 495-503.
Abstract:
After a series of model reactions, D-ribose (2) was reacted with 3-(triphenylphosphoranylidene)-2,5-pyrrolidinedione (8a) in THF at reflux to produce 3(E)-(2(S),3(S),4(R),5-tetrahydroxy-1-pentylidene)-2,5-pyrrolidinedione (35) (75%). Subsequent cyclization of 35 using phenylselenenyl chloride followed by hydrogen peroxide gave showdomycin (1) (13%) and epi-showdomycin (36) (41%). Using a similar strategy 2,3-O-isopropylidene-D-ribose (37b) was reacted sequentially with 1-(triphenylmethyl)-3-(triphenylphosphoranylidene)-2,5-pyrrolidinedione (8b), phenylselenenyl chloride, hydrogen peroxide, and trifluoroacetic acid to give 1 (3% overall). © 1986 American Chemical Society.
Gunatilaka, A. A., Sultanbawa, U. S., Wimalasena, K., & Balasubramaniam, S. (1983). Studies on medicinal plants of Sri Lanka. 10. Linarin, a flavone glycoside from exacum macranthum. Planta Medica, 48(1), 61-62.
Tezuka, Y., Kikuchi, T., Dhanabalasingham, B., Karunaratne, V., & Gunatilaka, A. A. (1993). Salacenonal: A novel nortriterpenoid aldehyde of biogenetic significance from Salacia reticulata. Natural Product Letters, 3(4), 273-276.
