Pichetpongtorn Piriyakorn, Komaikul Jukrapun, Ruangdachsuwan Sasiporn, Churod Theeraporn, Masrinoul Promsin, Kitisripanya Tharita
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand.
Center for Vaccine Development, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21369. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-06986-8.
Curcuma aeruginosa Roxb. is traditionally used across Southeast Asia in various cultural and medicinal practices. Its rhizome contains terpenes and has historically been employed to treat fever and gastrointestinal disorders-symptoms often associated with coronavirus infections. Large intestinal epithelial cells serve as potentially significant sites for viral replication, with pronounced susceptibility to human coronaviruses, and present promising targets for antiviral therapeutic interventions. This study investigated the phytochemicals in C. aeruginosa rhizome extracts using different extraction solvents and measured their inhibition against human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) replication activities in the large intestine adenocarcinoma cell line (HCT-8). Extracts using hexane, ethyl acetate, ethanol, or methanol were quantified for curcumenol and furanodienone using HPLC, with GC-MS/MS utilized for phytochemical analysis. The inhibition of HCoV-OC43 replication was evaluated using in-cell ELISA. The crude hexane extract of C. aeruginosa rhizome demonstrated the highest inhibitory activity, with the greatest amounts of curcumenol and furanodienone (59.56 ± 1.56 and 5.70 ± 0.26 mg/g, respectively) compared to the other crude extracts from different solvents. In GC-MS/MS analysis, curcumenol was identified as the major component in C. aeruginosa rhizome crude extracts, serving as a potential active marker for this plant. The findings indicated that C. aeruginosa hexane extract showed significant therapeutic potential for future antiviral applications.
莪术在东南亚传统上被广泛用于各种文化和医学实践中。其根茎含有萜类化合物，历史上一直被用于治疗发热和胃肠道疾病——这些症状通常与冠状病毒感染有关。大肠上皮细胞是病毒复制的潜在重要场所，对人类冠状病毒具有明显的易感性，是抗病毒治疗干预的有希望的靶点。本研究使用不同的提取溶剂研究了莪术根茎提取物中的植物化学物质，并测定了它们对人冠状病毒OC43（HCoV-OC43）在大肠腺癌细胞系（HCT-8）中复制活性的抑制作用。使用高效液相色谱法对己烷、乙酸乙酯、乙醇或甲醇提取物中的莪术醇和呋喃二烯酮进行定量，利用气相色谱-质谱/质谱联用仪进行植物化学分析。使用细胞内酶联免疫吸附测定法评估对HCoV-OC43复制的抑制作用。莪术根茎的粗己烷提取物表现出最高的抑制活性，与来自不同溶剂的其他粗提取物相比，莪术醇和呋喃二烯酮的含量最高（分别为59.56±1.56和5.70±0.26mg/g）。在气相色谱-质谱/质谱联用仪分析中，莪术醇被鉴定为莪术根茎粗提取物中的主要成分，是该植物的潜在活性标志物。研究结果表明，莪术己烷提取物对未来的抗病毒应用具有显著的治疗潜力。
