The Use of the Toxic Plant Myoporum montanum in a Traditional Australian Aboriginal Medicine
Diana Zaleta-Pinet A , Adam McCluskey A , Sharron Hall B , Joseph Brophy C , Chris Ashhurst-Smith B , Jennette Sakoff D and Ian van Altena A EA Chemistry, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
B Pathology North-Hunter, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, NSW 2298, Australia.
C School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
D Department of Medical Oncology, Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital, Waratah, NSW 2298, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: Ian.vanAltena@newcastle.edu.au
Australian Journal of Chemistry 69(2) 161-168 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH15586
Submitted: 20 September 2015 Accepted: 2 December 2015 Published: 23 December 2015
Abstract
Plants from the family Myoporaceae, which includes the genus Myoporum, are extremely prized by the Australian Aboriginal people for their medicinal properties. Leaves from a plant, which was subsequently identified as Myoporum montanum, were provided for chemical investigation by representatives of an Aboriginal community from the Northern Tablelands district of northern New South Wales, Australia. Acetone extraction of the leaves provided a complex mixture of compounds including sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and more polar furanosesquiterpenes, which were identified by gas–liquid chromatography and retention indices (sesquiterpene hydrocarbons) and spectrometric techniques (furanosesquiterpenes). The major compounds found in a water extract were studied for their antibacterial activity using a disc diffusion assay and for their cell growth inhibition activity. The acetone extract contained sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (~30 % of the total extract) in which the major compounds were germacrene-D and bicyclogermacrene. In addition, the extract contained five known toxic furanosesquiterpenes: myoporum ketol, (–)-10,11-dehydroisomyodesmone, (+)-10,11-dehydromyodesmone, 10,11-dehydromyoporum ketol, (–)-10,11-dehydromyoporone, and (±)-myoporone. An aqueous extract of the leaves, emulating the medicinal tea used by the Australian Aboriginal community, was found not to contain significant quantities of the sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and the most toxic furanosesquiterpenes. (±)-Myoporone and (–)-10,11-dehydromyoporone remained in the extract as well as a new furanosesquiterpene, 11-hydroxymyoporone. These three compounds were found to have significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, and Moraxella catarrhalis but low cytotoxicity against a range of cancer cell lines and normal breast cells at 25 µM.
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