The Cucurbitaceae plant Momordica (M.) charantia L. is cultivated in Asian countries and the fruit of this plant has been used as a bitter stomachic, a laxative, an antidiabetic, and an anthelmintic for children in Chinese, Indian Ayurvedic, and Indonesian Jamu traditional medicines. The alcoholic extract from the fruit of M. charantia originated in Sri Lanka was reported to inhibit the increase in serum glucose levels after glucose-loaded rats.1) In addition, Several cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides were reported as chemical constituents of the fruit.5-10) However, chemical and pharmacological studies [1][2][3][4] on the fruit of M. charantia were yet left uncharacterised. During the course of characterization studies on the bioactive constituents of medicinal foodstuffs, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] we reported the isolation and structure elucidation of eight cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides, goyaglycosides-a, -b, -c, -d, -e, -f, -g, and -h, and three oleanane-type triterpene glycosides, goyasaponins I, II, and III, from the fresh fruit of Japanese M. charantia.
The methanolic extract from the fruit of Citrullus colocynthis showed an inhibitory effect on ear passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reactions as a type I allergic model in mice. From the methanolic extract, two new cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides, colocynthosides A and B, were isolated together with 17 known constituents. The structures of colocynthosides A and B were elucidated on the basis of chemical and physicochemical evidence. In addition, the principal cucurbitane-type triterpene glycoside, cucurbitacin E 2-O-b b-D-glucopyranoside, and its aglycon, cucurbitacin E, exhibited the antiallergic activity at a dose of 100 and 1.25 mg/kg, p.o., respectively.
Three new cucurbitane-type triterpenes (Ia), (Ib) and (IIa) and five new cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides (Ic)-(Ie), (IIb) and (IIc) are isolated from the fruit of M. charantia. The structures are elucidated on the basis of chemical and physicochemical evidence. -(NAKAMURA, S.; MURAKAMI, T.; NAKAMURA, J.; KOBAYASHI, H.; MATSUDA, H.; YOSHIKAWA*, M.; Chem. Pharm. Bull. 54 (2006) 11, 1545-1550; Kyoto Pharm. Univ., Misasagi, Yamashina, Kyoto 607, Japan; Eng.) -H. Hoennerscheid
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.