(Antiviral evaluation of coumarins from Prangos ferulacea L. (Lindl

Background and Aims: Coumarins are bioactive secondary metabolites and could be found in the roots of Umbellifreae. Some of Prangos species are used in traditional medicine as emollient, carminative, tonic, anti-flatulent, anthelmintic, antifungal and antibacterial agents. There are also new reports on cytokine release inhibitory and anti-HIV activities of different species of Prangos. Prangos ferulacea is found in many regions of Iran and revealed to bear good amounts of coumarins. Methods: The air-dried roots of P. ferulacea were extracted with acetone using maceration method for 24 h and the solvent was evaporated by rotary evaporator. Repeated open column chromatography, HPLC and MPLC in normal and reverse phase chromatographies using n-heptane, ethyl acetate, hexane, methanol and water as mobile phases resulted in isolation of several coumarins. The structures of isolated coumarins were elucidated using NMR, and MS spectra. The anti-HSV and cytotoxic effect of some of them were evaluated Results: From the acetone extract of P. ferulacea, several coumarins such as osthole, isoimperatorin, oxypeucedanin, psoralen, oxypeucedanin hydrate, gosferol and oxypeucedanin methnolate were isolated and structures elucidated. Some of them showed anti-HSV and cytotoxic effects.

Oxypeucedanin; Psoralen; Oxypeucedanin hydrate; Gosferol