Antiepileptic C₂₁ steroids from the roots of Cynanchum otophyllum

Abstract

In order to discover more natural products possessing potentially antiepileptic activities, three C₂₁ steroids, including a new one, characterized as caudatin-3-O-β-d-cymaropyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-d-cymaropyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-d-cymaropyranoside (1), and two known analogs, otophylloside B (2) and caudatin-3-O-β-d-oleandropyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-d-oleandropyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-d-cymaropyranosyl-(1 → 4)-β-d-cymaropyranoside (3), were isolated from the chloroform extract of the roots of Cynanchum otophyllum and evaluated for their antiepileptic activities by pentylenetrazole (PTZ)-induced zebrafish larval locomotor assay. The results showed that all of them had marked activities of suppressing PTZ-induced seizure behaviors in larval zebrafish at the dose of 10 μg/ml.

Keywords::

• Cynanchum otophyllum
• C21 steroid
• antiepileptic effect
• zebrafish

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant no. 31160065] and the Macao Science and Technology Development Fund [grant no. 052/2012/A2].