Inhibition of lipid peroxidation, cyclooxygenase enzyme and human tumor cell proliferation by compounds in herbal water.

A powdered mixture of dried herbs, "Panamrutham", is sold in India for the preparation of "herbal drinking water". The hot water extract of this herbal mixture gave lipid peroxidation (LPO), cyclo-oxygenase (COX-1 and -2) enzyme and human tumor cell proliferation inhibitory activities between 25 and 250 microg/mL. The bioassay-guided purification of the water extract afforded a novel compound (1), along with phenolics (2, 4, 6, and 7) and sesquiterpenoids (3 and 5). The isolates were evaluated for LPO, COX-1 and -2 enzyme and human tumor cell proliferation inhibitory activities. At 25 microg/mL, compounds 1-7 inhibited LPO by 22-73% and COX-1 and -2 enzymes by 3-14% and 14-74%, respectively. Compounds 5 and 6 at 25 microg/mL showed growth inhibition of colon, gastric, lung, breast and central nervous system human tumor cell lines by 60 and 67, 43 and 60, 24 and 64, 34 and 65, 6 and 27%, respectively. Compounds 2, 4 and 7 displayed weak or moderate growth inhibition of colon, gastric and breast human tumor cell lines. This is the first report on the LPO inhibitory activities of compounds 1 and 3-7 and the COX and tumor cell proliferation inhibitory activities of compounds 1, 3-5 and 7.