Biological active compounds from Georgian Galanthus shaoricus

Amaryllidaceae alkaloids exhibit antitumour, antiviral and anticholinergic activities. Some of them have been used in the treatment of myasthenia gravis, myopathy and diseases of the nervous system. In this study, the characterization of these compounds from Amaryllidaceae plants along with some biological activities and some regulations to conserve the native flora will be reviewed. Plants materials: Galanthus shaoricus Kem.-Nath., were collected in 2007-2008 during the flowering period in Georgia. The preparation of extracts and fractions were obtained using methanolic maceration. Crude alkaloidal extracts were typically purified by liquid-liquid partitioning of their basic forms in chloroform. Lycorine, galantamine and tazettine has been found as one of the major alkaloid from Amaryllidaceae plants. Galanthus shaoricus have shown good antimalarial and cytotoxic activity in a dose-dependent manner. Methanolic extracts from bulbs demonstrated significant growth inhibition on human Hela and HCT-116 cells lines with IC50 (μg/mL) 16.3±1.8; 22.1±2.9 (aerial parts) and 12.8±1.7; 16.5±1.9 (Bulbs), respectively. Concerning the Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, lycorine with IC50 (μM) 0.8±0.5 and 2.6±0.2, haemantaimene (IC50=1.1±0.7 and 2.7±0.8 μM), hamaine (IC50=3.4±1.0 and 6.2 ±1.4 μM), homolycorine (IC50=1.4±0.9 and 3.3±1.0 μM), hipeastrine (IC50=2.8±1.0 and 7.5±1.8 μM) were found to be responsible for the cytotoxic activity on HCT-116 and Hela cell lines, respectively.