Thursday, March 30, 2006
Kansas City Convention Center Bartle Hall

CSS Analytical Poster Contribution:

Identification of Antineoplastic and Neurotrophic Lignans in Medicinal Prairie Plants by Liquid Chromatography Electron Impact Mass Spectrometry (LC/EI/MS)
 
James M. Chapman¹, Christina Knoy¹, Kelly Kindscher², Richard C.D. Brown³ and Scott Niemann<sup>4


1</sup>Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO, ²University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS,
³University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, ⁴CSS Analytical Company, Shawnee, KS
 
Acorus calamus or sweet flag has been long known for its medicinal value and was used widely by North American Indian tribes, especially the Plains Indians, to treat a variety of medical ailments. The rhizome of Acorus calamus contains aromatic oil that has been used medicinally since ancient times and the plant is commercially cultivated in Asia for this reason.  The rhizomes are considered to possess anti-spasmodic, carminative and anthelmintic properties and also used for the treatment of epilepsy, mental ailments, chronic diarrhea, dysentery, bronchial catarrh, intermittent fevers and glandular and abdominal tumors. They are also employed for kidney and liver troubles, rheumatism, sinusitis, and eczema.  The discovery of two plant lignans, epieudesmin and galgravin, in the leaves of the plant potentially explains several of the purported activities attributed to Acorus calamus. Epieudesmin has been shown to have antineoplastic activity against the murine P388 lymphocytic leukemia cell line and several human cancer cell lines (BXPC-3, MCF-7, SF268, NCI-H460, KM20L2, & DU-145).  Galgravin has demonstrated activity in preventing neuronal death and stimulating neurite growth.  Structurally similar lignans have also shown neuroprotective activity in in vitro models for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.  Both epieudesmin and galgravin were identified in the methanolic extracts of Acorus calamus leaves by liquid chromatography electron impact mass spectrometry.  This method permits the rapid assessment of plant extracts for the presence of medicinally active non-volatile compounds with a minimum of pre-purification.  Extracts are separated by RP-HPLC prior to volatilization of the LC effluent and introduction into the electron impact ionization chamber.  The advantage to acquiring EI fragmentation data lies within the subsequent ability to use existing deconvolution and search programs to match results with well-established and extensive commercially available EI mass spectral databases. 

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