Cytotoxic cardiac glycosides from the fruit (pods) of <i>Adenium obesum</i> (Forssk.) Roem. & Schult

<p>Phytochemical investigation of methanolic extract of <i>Adenium obesum</i> led to the isolation of 42 (<b>1–42</b>) compounds belongs to cardiac glycosides, triterpenoids and steroids. The chemical structures of isolated compounds were elucidated by spectral techniques UV, IR, NMR and FAB MS. The cardiac glycosides were tested against three human cell lines, 3T3 (normal cells), HeLa (Human cervical cancer cell lines) and PC-3 (Human prostate cancer cell lines). The cardiac glycoside, honghelin (<b>4</b>), obeside B (<b>5</b>) and obeside C (<b>6</b>) showed significant effects against cell lines Hela, 3T3 and PC-3 compared to standard drug doxorubicin. Compounds <b>4</b>, <b>5</b> and <b>6</b> exhibited very low IC₅₀ (μM) against the PC3 human cell line. <b>4</b> and <b>6</b> also showed least IC₅₀ against the HeLa human cell lines as compared to the standard drug doxorubicin whereas these three compounds showed effect on 3T3 cell line with high IC₅₀ values compared to drug cycloheximide.