Bioactivity-guided fractionation was used to determine the cytotoxic alkaloids from the toxic plant Peganum harmala. Two novel indole alkaloids, together with ten known ones, were isolated and identified. The novel alkaloids were elucidated to be 2-(indol-3-yl)ethyl-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (2) and 3-hydroxy-3-(N-acetyl-2-aminoethyl)-6-methoxyindol-2-one (3). The cytotoxicity against human leukemia cells was assayed for the alkaloids and some of them showed potent activity. Harmalacidine (compound 8, HMC) exhibited the highest cytotoxicity against U-937 cells with IC50 value of 3.1 ± 0.2 μmol/L. The cytotoxic mechanism of HMC was targeting the mitochondrial and protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathways (PTKs-Ras/Raf/ERK). The results strongly demonstrated that the alkaloids from Peganum harmala could be a promising candidate for the therapy of leukemia.
Keywords: Peganum harmala; anti-leukemia; cytotoxicity; indole alkaloids; mitochondrial pathway.