1. Eskitis Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia;2. Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Toowong, Queensland 4006, Australia
Abstract:
An anti-inflammatory active extract from the seeds of the Australian rainforest vine Celastrus subspicata was identified from high throughput screening of a plant and marine invertebrate extract library using an assay which detects down regulation of expression of pro-inflammatory genes associated with the glucocorticoid receptor ligand complex. The anti-inflammatory properties of the extract were found to be associated with a group of fatty acids that were present in the extract in high yield. Two agarofurans were also isolated and shown to possess minimal anti-inflammatory activity and to be cytotoxic towards HeLa cancer cells.