Phytochemicals in Foods - 6 Health Benefits of Moronic acid

Moronic acid is a phytochemincal in the subclass of Triterpenoid, belonging to the group of Terpenes found in extracted from Rhus javanica, Mistletoe, etc.

Health Benefits
1. HIV maturation inhibitor
In the study of triterpene derivatives as potent anti-HIV agents, different C-3 conformationally restricted betulinic acid (BA, 1) derivatives were designed and synthesized in order to explore the conformational space of the C-3 pharmacophore. 3-O-Monomethylsuccinyl-betulinic acid (MSB) analogues were also designed to better understand the contribution of the C-3' dimethyl group of bevirimat (2), the first-in-class HIV maturation inhibitor, which is currently in phase IIb clinical trials. In addition, another triterpene skeleton, moronic acid (MA, 3), was also employed to study the influence of the backbone and the C-3 modification toward the anti-HIV activity of this compound class, may lead to led to the design and synthesis of compound 12 (EC(50): 0.0006 microM), which displayed slightly better activity than 2 as a HIV-1 maturation inhibitor, according to " Anti-AIDS agents 81. Design, synthesis, and structure-activity relationship study of betulinic acid and moronic acid derivatives as potent HIV maturation inhibitors" by Qian K, Kuo RY, Chen CH, Huang L, Morris-Natschke SL, Lee KH.(1)

2. Anti- Epstein-Barr virus
In the investigation of moronic acid, found in galls of Rhus chinensis and Brazilian propolis, at 10microM inhibits the expression of Rta, Zta, and an EBV early protein, EA-D, after lytic induction with sodium butyrate, found that moronic acids inhibits the capacity of Rta to activate a promoter that contains an Rta-response element, indicating that moronic acid interferes with the function of Rta. On the other hand, moronic acid does not appear to influence with the transactivation function of Zta. Therefore, the lack of expression of Zta and EA-D after moronic acid treatment is attributable to the inhibition of the transactivation functions of Rta. Because the expression of Zta, EA-D and many EBV lytic genes depends on Rta, the treatment of P3HR1 cells with moronic acid substantially reduces the numbers of EBV particles produced by the cells after lytic induction, according to "Inhibition of the Epstein-Barr virus lytic cycle by moronic acid" by Chang FR, Hsieh YC, Chang YF, Lee KH, Wu YC, Chang LK.(2)

3. Anti fungal effects
In the determination of The effect of compound isolated from ethanol extract from Xyris pteygoblephara aerial parts against five microorganism strains, by the microdilution and agar diffusion methods, indicated that assay of 1 (100 microg/disc) by the agar diffusion method against clinical isolates of the dermatophytes Epidermophyton floccosum (inhibition zone, mm+/-s.d.: 4.5+/-0.8), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (4.8+/-0.4) and Trichophyton rubrum (10.2+/-0.8) revealed similar inhibition zones to the positive control amphotericin B (32 microg/disc; 5.0+/-0.2; 5.0+/-0.6 and 8.8+/-1.2, respectively), according to "Dihydroisocoumarin from Xyris pterygoblephara active against dermatophyte fungi" by Guimarães KG, de Souza Filho JD, Dos Mares-Guia TR, Braga FC.(3)

4. Cytotoxic activity
In the isolation of the cytotoxic compound moronic acid (1) and the new tetracyclic triterpene 3,4-seco-olean-18-ene-3,28-dioic acid (2), from the aerial parts of the medicinal plant Phoradendron reichenbachianum (mistletoe, Loranthaceae) through a bioassay-guided fractionation, indicated that the structures were elucidated on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic evidence, according to "Cytotoxic activity of moronic acid and identification of the new triterpene 3,4-seco-olean-18-ene-3,28-dioic acid from Phoradendron reichenbachianum`by Rios MY, Salina D, Villarreal ML.(4)

5. Antimicrobial activity
In the isolation of the active factor C₃₀H₄₆O₃ of the Root bark extract of the East African medicinal plant Ozoroa mucronata showed antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, according to "Moronic acid, a simple triterpenoid keto acid with antimicrobial activity isolated from Ozoroa mucronata" by Hostettmann-Kaldas M, Nakanishi K.(5)

6. Anti-herpes simplex virus
In the study of purification two major anti-HSV compounds, moronic acid and betulonic acid, from the herbal extract by extraction with ethyl acetate at pH 10 followed by chromatographic separations and examined their anti-HSV activity in vitro and in vivo, found that Moronic acid suppressed virus yields in the brain more efficiently than those in the skin. This was consistent with the prolongation of mean survival times. Thus, moronic acid was purified as a major anti-HSV compound from the herbal extract of Rhus javanica. Mode of the anti-HSV activity was different from that of ACV, according to "Anti-herpes simplex virus activity of moronic acid purified from Rhus javanica in vitro and in vivo" by Kurokawa M, Basnet P, Ohsugi M, Hozumi T, Kadota S, Namba T, Kawana T, Shiraki K.(6)

7. Etc.


Sources
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20329730
(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19969023
(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17870137
(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11488459
(5) https://www.thieme-connect.com/ejournals/abstract/plantamedica/doi/10.1055/s-0028-1097349
(6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10086989