Bioassay-guided isolation and biochemical characterisation of vasorelaxant compounds extracted from a Dalbergia species

Abstract

Natural products have been the source of many of our successful drugs providing us with an unrivalled chemical diversity combined with drug-like properties. The search for bioactive compounds can be helped considerably by the phytotherapeutic knowledge held by indigenous communities. In this study solvent extracts from the bark of a Dalbergia species and used by a community in Borneo, will be investigated to isolate, identify and biochemically characterise compounds showing vasorelaxation. At the core of this study is the hypertensive model, which uses phenylephrine precontracted rat aortic rings as a bioassay to identify solvent extracts, fractions and sub-fractions that cause relaxation. These fractions are generated using chromatographic techniques and solvent systems developed specifically for this purpose. Structural elucidation of the isolated compounds was undertaken by studying extensive data from UV, MS, 1D and 2D 1H and 13C NMR spectra. This study also undertook the pharmacological characterisation of the isolated compounds using the same bioassay together with enzyme and receptor inhibitors to identify the signalling pathways involved.

Date of Award	2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton