Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy (for Girls), Al-Azhar University, P.O. Box 11651, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine (for Girls), Al-Azhar University, P.O. Box 11754, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2021 May 10;271:113878. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2021.113878. Epub 2021 Jan 27.
Ricinus communis L., commonly known as castor oil plant, is a precious traditional medicine with a history of thousands of years in the world. Castor oil plant has high traditional and medicinal values for treating liver infections, stomach ache, flatulence, constipation, inflammation, warts, colic, enteritis, fever, headache, and as a counter irritant. Its diverse phytochemicals have a wide range of valuable medicinal activities including hepatoprotective, anti-nociceptive, antioxidant, antiulcer, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, central analgesic, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antiviral, and wound healing activity.
To provide a complete characterization of the composition of Ricinus communis leaves using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid triple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS) and different chromatographic techniques and to evaluate its antiviral potential using three mechanisms against three common viruses.
R. communis leaves were extracted with 70% methanol and further partitioned with solvents of increasing polarities: petroleum ether, dichloromethane (CHCl), ethyl acetate, and n-butanol. The CHCl and n-butanol fractions were subjected to repeated chromatographic separation to isolate the phytochemicals, and their structures were elucidated using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. UPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS was performed to determine the different phytochemicals in the ethyl acetate fraction. The antiviral activity of the extracts was investigated using the maximum nontoxic concentration of each against the challenge dose of the virus (CDV) and 1/10 and 1/100 dilutions of the CDV for Coxsackie B virus type 4 (COXB4), herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1), and hepatitis A virus (HAV) using Vero cell cultures that were treated according to three protocols to test for anti-replicative, protective, and anti-infective antiviral activity. Cell viability was evaluated using the MTT colorimetric assay and each experiment is repeated three times independently of each other.
R. communis leaves possessed antiviral activity. Evaluation of the anti-replicative activity showed that all extracts possessed high anti-replicative activity against HAV especially methanol and methylene chloride fractions and moderate activity against COXB4; butanol > methylene chloride and ethyl acetate > methanol. All extracts showed protective activity against HAV, especially butanol extract, while methanol extracts showed higher non-significant antiviral protective activity against HSV1 vs Acyclovir. Almost no anti-infective effects were recorded for any extract against the studied viruses.
The discriminatory effect against each virus by different mechanisms suggests the presence of different chemical compounds. The alkaloid and phenolic derivatives of the extracts of R. communis leaves may help develop a drug to prevent or treat common viral infections. Further investigations are recommended to define the bioactive antiviral properties of R. communis leaves.
蓖麻（Ricinus communis L.），通常称为蓖麻油植物，是一种具有数千年历史的珍贵传统药物。蓖麻油植物对治疗肝脏感染、胃痛、胀气、便秘、炎症、疣、绞痛、肠炎、发热、头痛和作为刺激性药物具有很高的传统和药用价值。其多样的植物化学物质具有广泛的有价值的药用活性，包括保肝、镇痛、抗氧化、抗溃疡、抗癌、抗炎、中枢镇痛、抗糖尿病、抗菌、抗病毒和伤口愈合活性。
使用超高效液相色谱-串联三重飞行时间质谱（UPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS）和不同的色谱技术对蓖麻叶的成分进行全面表征，并使用三种机制针对三种常见病毒评估其抗病毒潜力。
用 70%甲醇提取蓖麻叶，然后用极性逐渐增加的溶剂进一步分离：石油醚、二氯甲烷（CHCl）、乙酸乙酯和正丁醇。将 CHCl 和正丁醇馏分进行反复的色谱分离以分离植物化学物质，并使用核磁共振光谱法阐明其结构。使用 UPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS 测定乙酸乙酯馏分中的不同植物化学物质。使用每种提取物的最大无毒浓度，根据三种方案对柯萨奇 B 病毒 4 型（COXB4）、单纯疱疹病毒 1 型（HSV1）和甲型肝炎病毒（HAV）进行检测，测试抗复制、保护和抗感染抗病毒活性。使用 MTT 比色法评估细胞活力，每个实验独立重复三次。
蓖麻叶具有抗病毒活性。抗复制活性评价表明，所有提取物对 HAV 均具有高抗复制活性，特别是甲醇和二氯甲烷馏分，对 COXB4 具有中度活性；丁醇>二氯甲烷和乙酸乙酯>甲醇。所有提取物均对 HAV 显示出保护活性，特别是正丁醇提取物，而甲醇提取物对 HSV1 显示出比阿昔洛韦更高的非显著抗病毒保护活性。几乎没有任何提取物对研究中的病毒表现出抗感染作用。
不同机制对每种病毒的区分作用表明存在不同的化学化合物。蓖麻叶提取物中的生物碱和酚类衍生物可能有助于开发预防或治疗常见病毒感染的药物。建议进一步研究以确定蓖麻叶的生物活性抗病毒特性。
