Variability in content of the anti-AIDS drug candidate prostratin in Samoan populations of Homalanthus nutans

Abstract

Homalanthus nutans, used by Samoan healers to treat hepatitis, produces the antiviral compound 12-deoxyphorbol 13-acetate, prostratin (1). Prostratin is being developed as an adjuvant therapy to clear latent viral reservoirs, the major obstacle to eradication of HIV-AIDS within the human body. A validated reversed-phase HPLC method was developed to assay concentrations of 1 in H. nutans. A survey of four distinct populations on two different Samoan islands revealed significant variability in content. The stem tissue (range 0.2-52.6 μg/g 1), used by healers in indigenous therapies, gave a higher median concentration of prostratin (3.5 μg/g) than root or leaf tissues (2.9 and 2.5 μg/g, respectively). The high variability and skewness of these data indicate that cultivar selection for drug production will be important for this species. The reversed-phase HPLC assay will allow plants to be selected for agricultural development and genetic analysis by identifying those individuals above and below a 95% confidence interval for the median concentration. © 2008 American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy.