The Open Bioactive Compounds Journal
2013, 4 : 1-3Published online 2013 September 4. DOI: 10.2174/1874847320130628001
Publisher ID: TOBCJ-4-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Biotransformation of Khellin to Khellol by and the Evaluation of their Biological Activities
1
Department of Agro-environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581 Japan
2 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
3 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of pharmacy, Delta University for Science and Technology, Egypt
* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Agro-environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581 Japan; E-mail: shimizu@agr.kyushu-u.ac.jp
2 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt
3 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of pharmacy, Delta University for Science and Technology, Egypt
* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Agro-environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581 Japan; E-mail: shimizu@agr.kyushu-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
Biotransformation of khellin using Aspergillus niger ATCC 10549 resulted in the production of khellol. The biological activities of the transformed product and khellin were established by antioxidant and acetylcholine esterase inhibitory assays. Khellol exhibited a higher degree of antioxidant and acetylcholine esterase inhibitory activities compared to khellin. This is the first report on the biotransformation of khellin by microorganisms and the first evaluation of the neuroprotective activity of either khellin or khellol.