Antitumor activity of pedunculagin, one of the ellagitannin

As a part of trials to develop the antitumor agent from tannins isolated from plants, the antitumor activity of pedunculagin, an ellagitannin, isolated fromAlnus hirsuta var.microphylla-was examinedin vitro andin vivo. In vitro, the cytotoxicity was determined by 0.4% trypan blue dye exclusion method. Pedunculagin showed the dose-dependent cytotoxicity against human chronic myelogenous leukemia (K-562), human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60), mouse lymphoid neoplasm (P388), mouse lymphocytic leukemia (L1210) and mouse sarcoma 180 (S 180) cell lines. ED50 values (ED50) of each cell line were 5.30, 0.92, 2.78, 9.35 and 1.38 μg/ml respectively. The most sensitive cell line was HL-60.In vivo, pedunculagin was administered to ICR mouse with the doses of 50 and 100 μg/kg intraperitoneally once at 20 days before S180 inoculation. Pedunculagin showed the antitumor activity and its T/C ratio (%) was 120.82% in the group of both concentrations.