• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2003

To isolate and purify the antimicrobial and antitumor agents in Xanthium strumarium L. hydrothermal extract. The crude extract was extracted in ether or ethylacetate under neutral, acidic, and alkali conditions. The antimicrobial activity of each extract was tested against 16 strains of bacteria, 2 strains of yeast, and 2 strains of fungus. The ether neutral extract (XE-N) exhibited the strongest growth inhibition upon the 8 strains of gram-positive bacteria, 6 strains of gram-negative bacteria and Cryptococcus neoformans. Fluorescein diacetate (FDA) testing of XE-N and XEA-N showed growth inhibition of the 3 strains of E. coli, S. aureus and C. albicans even at 30 ng/mL, with the exception of p. aeruginosa. XE-N-S1 and XE-N-S3 from neutral ether extract (XE-N), XE-N-S3 from the acidic ether extract (XE-A), and XEA-N-S1 from ethylacetate (XEA-N) were purified as antimicrobial and antitumor agents. However all purified compounds decomposed with the exception of XE-N-S1. The results upon the antitumor activities of the crude extract and of its purified compounds, showed that XE-N-S1 had the best antitumor activity against HeLa cells. In terms of antitumor activity against HepG2 cells, XE-N-S1 and XE-N-S3 were superior, and against HT29 cells XE-N and XE-N-Sl were good, against Saos2, NCI H522, NCI H1703, Clone M3 cells XE-N-51 was very good, and against LN CAP cells XE-N-S3 was the best. Comparing of cellular toxicities various extracts and purified compounds with the existing antitumor agents, XE-A, XEA-A and XEA-B had the lowest toxicity, and XE-B had a lower toxicity than etoposide. XE-N-S1 and XE-N-S3 showed higher toxicities than etoposide, and the toxicity of XE-A-S3 was higher than that of etoposide, and lower than that of csplatin.