Studies on the Chemical Constituents of Petroleum Ether Fraction of Taro acuminata and Its Cytotoxic Activity in breast cancer
Alocasia cuculata (Lour.) Schott, a plant belonging to the Araceae family, is used as medicine with its dried roots and stems. It was first recorded in the “New Selection of Practical Chinese Herbal Medicines in Guangxi”. It has a pungent and slightly bitter taste, a cold nature, and is toxic. It belongs to the lung meridian and has the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, reducing swelling, and relieving pain. The root and stem of taro are commonly used in folk medicine for high fever, influenza, leptospirosis, typhoid fever, scrofula, and tuberculosis; Topical treatment for sores, burns, venomous snake bites, and wasp stings. Jianwei taro is toxic and needs to be decocted for at least 6 hours before oral administration. When consumed by mistake, it is commonly boiled with vinegar and a small amount of ginger juice, taken orally or rinsed to detoxify. In clinical practice, it is detoxified by intramuscular injection of diphenhydramine and intravenous injection of glucose saline solution. Modern research has shown that the water and alcohol extracts of taro have significant pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and spleen protective effects. However, the research on the pharmacological substance basis of taro is relatively weak, especially the chemical composition of its petroleum ether fraction, which is limited to GC-MS analysis. Therefore, in this paper, the petroleum ether part of Tara acuminata was taken as the research object, and silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 and other chromatographic methods were used to separate and purify the petroleum ether part of Tara acuminata, and the chemical components of the petroleum ether part of Tara acuminata were identified by UV spectrum, one-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum and other spectral techniques, to explore the material basis of its petroleum ether part efficacy. At the same time, with human breast cancer MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 cells and mouse breast cancer 4T1 cells as screening models, the cytotoxicity of the isolated monomer compounds in breast cancer was studied. In order to provide a basis for in-depth research and development of the pointed tail taro.

In previous studies, our research team found that the petroleum ether part of the alcohol extract of Taro acuminata has good anti breast cancer activity, and its mechanism is related to inhibiting the expression of p-ERK/ERK in the MAPKs pathway. However, the material basis of the petroleum ether part of the alcohol extract of Taro acuminata for its anti breast cancer effect is still unclear. Therefore, in this study, 16 compounds were isolated from the petroleum ether fraction of the rhizome of taro, including esters (methyl myristate, ethyl vanillic acid), terpenes (squalene, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, perilla alcohol, perilla lactone), phenylpropanoids (p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 7-hydroxycoumarin), polyphenols (ethyl gallate, protocatechualdehyde, protocatechuic acid), aromatic acids (benzoic acid), fatty alcohols (octacosanol), and phenolic acids (gallic acid). Compounds 2-15 were isolated for the first time in the taro genus, and all compounds were isolated for the first time in taro. The results of inhibiting the proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro showed that compounds 4, 8 and 9 had certain inhibitory effects on the proliferation of human breast cancer MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 cells and mouse breast cancer 4T1 cells. It was found that oleanolic acid, ursolic acid and ethyl gallate could inhibit the proliferation and proliferation of various tumor cells and induce apoptosis of tumor cells. Their anti-tumor effects may be related to the regulation of PI3K/Akt, MAPK, Wnt/β – catenin and other signal pathways, which is consistent with the mechanism of petroleum ether fraction of taro in our previous research on breast cancer. To sum up, this study further enriched the chemical composition of petroleum ether part of Tara acuminata, and screened out its active ingredients that inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro, providing a certain experimental basis for studying the material basis of petroleum ether part of Tara acuminata against breast cancer.