Chemopreventive activity of sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) from yacon against TPA-induced Raji cells deformation.

Yacon is a medicinal plant used as a traditional medicine by the natives in South America. In Japan, it becomes popular as a health food. Sesquiterpene Lactones (SLs) from yacon leaves were investigated and the active SLs such as enhydrin, uvedalin and sonchifolin, bearing alpha-methylene-gamma-lactone and epoxides as the active functional groups, were identified by 1H-6000 MHz-NMR. Chemopreventive and cytotoxic activities were determined using different primary screening methods. In this study, all tested SLs strongly inhibited TPA-induced deformed of Raji cells. The IC50 values of yacon SLs from anti-deforming assay were 0.04-0.4 microM. Interestingly, yacon SLs showed more potential of chemo preventive activity than both curcumin and parthenolide. However, the cytotoxicity on Raji cells was observed at high concentration of yacon SLs. The degree of anti-deformation was ranked in order: enhydrin >uvedalin >sonchifolin >parthenolide >curcumin. As according to structure-activity relationship, the high activities of enhydrin, uvedalin and sonchifolin may be due to the 2-methyl-2-butenoate and its epoxide moiety.