Sucrose esters from Physalis peruviana calyces with anti-inflammatory activity

Abstract

Physalis peruviana is a native plant from the South American Andes and is widely used in tra- ditional Colombian medicine of as an anti-inflam- matory medicinal plant, specifically the leaves, calyces, and small stems in poultice form. Pre- vious studies performed by our group on P. pe- ruviana calyces showed potent anti-inflamma- tory activity in an enriched fraction obtained from an ether total extract. The objective of the present study was to obtain and elucidate the ac- tive compounds from this fraction and evaluate their anti-inflammatory activity in vivo and in vi- tro. The enriched fraction of P. peruviana was pu- rified by several chromatographic methods to ob- tain an inseparable mixture of two new sucrose esters named peruviose A (1) and peruviose B (2). Structures of the new compounds were eluci- dated using spectroscopic methods and chemical transformations. The anti-inflammatory activity of the peruvioses mixture was evaluated using λ-carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats and lipopolysaccharide-activated peritoneal macro- phages. Results showed that the peruvioses did not produce side effects on the liver and kidneys and significantly attenuated the inflammation in- duced by λ-carrageenan in a dosage-dependent manner, probably due to an inhibition of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2, which was demon- strated in vitro. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the presence of sucrose esters in P. pe- ruviana that showed a potent anti-inflammatory effect. These results suggest the potential of su- crose esters from the Physalis genus as a novel natural alternative to treat inflammatory diseases.