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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Little Rock, Arkansas » Microbiome and Metabolism Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #164025

Title: HYDROXYLATED TRITERPENE ALCOHOL FERULATEDS FROM RICE BRAN

Author
item LUO, HONGFENG - ACNC/UAMS
item FANG, NIANBAI - ACNC/UAMS
item LI, QINGLIN - ACNC/UAMS
item YU, SHANGGONG - ACNC
item BADGER, THOMAS - ACNC/UAMS

Submitted to: Journal of Natural Products
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/2004
Publication Date: 10/21/2004
Citation: Luo, H., Fang, N., Li, Q., Yu, S., Badger, T.M. 2004. Hydroxylated triterpene alcohol ferulateds from rice bran. Journal of Natural Products. 68(1):94-97.

Interpretive Summary: It is well known that Asians have lower cancer incidence and lower rates of other diseases than do Americans. Much of these differences have been found to involve lifestyle issues such as diet. There has been much focus on the high soybean and tea content of the Asian diet and the role those foods might play in disease prevention. Little attention has been paid to the major component of many Asian diets, rice. Rice contains hundreds of phytochemicals and many have been shown to have biological activity. y-Oryzanol from rice bran has been reported to possess important pharmacological actions and contain two groups of components, the relative non-polar major group and the relative polar minor group. In the present study, these two groups were separated by HPLC and their in vitro anticancer activity was evaluated for their ability to either kill human breast cancer cells or to otherwise prevent them from continuing to develop and grow. The minor group, which consists with all unknown components, killed the cancer cells more readily than the major group which has been extensively studied for decades. Further separation of minor group led to the identification of three new feruloyl esters of hydroxylated triterpene alcohols, but there are many others still awaiting identification. Future studies should provide evidence of rice phytochemicals that help reduce the risks of human diseases.

Technical Abstract: y-Oryzanol from rice bran has been reported to possess important pharmacological actions and contain two groups of components, the relative non-polar major group and the relative polar minor group. In the present study, these two groups were separated by HPLC and their in vitro anticancer activity was evaluated by MTT bioassay using human breast carcinoma cell lines MCF-7 cells. The minor group, which consists with all unknown components, showed more active (IC50 80.87 ug/ml) than major group (IC50 549.76 ug/ml) which has been extensively studied for decades. Further separation of minor group led to the identification of three new feruloyl esters of hydroxylated triterpene alcohols, (24S)-cycloart-25-ene-3ß,24-diol-3ß-trans-ferulate (1), (24R)-cycloart-25-ene-3ß,24-diol-3ß-trans-ferulate (2) and cycloart-23Z-ene-3ß,25-diol-3ß-trans-ferulate (3). Their structures were elucidated by means of spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 1 (IC50 42.34 ug/ml) and 3 (IC50 79.32 ug/ml) showed moderate cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells.