Abstract:

To develop natural antitumor medicaments from abandoned starfish shells, watersoluble asterosaponin from Asterias rollestoni Bell were isolated, purified and their antitumor bioactivities were examined. After extracted with hot water and purified with macroporous resin column and silica gel column chromatograghy respectively, watersoluble asterosaponin with purity of 99.6％ and properties of steroidal saponins was obtained. In vitro antitumor activity examination showed that the purified asterosaponin had high antitumor activity on HeLa cells, SGC7901 gastric cancer cells, A549 lung cancer cells and Bel7402 hepatocarcinoma cells. The inhibiting rate of 50 mg／L asterosaponin to the above four kinds of cancer cells was(92.06±2.60)％, (95.22±2.87)％, (95.04±3.30)％ and (91.60±4.30)％, and its corresponding IC50 value to these cells was 7.05, 5.28, 5.32 and 6.16mg／L, respectively. In vivo antitumor activity examination showed that the purified asterosaponin at the dose of 2.10μg／g bodyweight had obvious inhibiting effect on the S180 solid tumor in mice in a dose dependent manner. And tumorinhibiting rate of 10μg／g asterosaponin was as high as 46.27％, higher than that of 10μg／g cyclophosvnamide (CTX, one kind of anticancer drugs). Besides, 2.10μg／g asterosaponin could obviously increase the thymus index and spleen index of the tumor-bearing mice.

Key words: Asterias rollestoni Bell; water-soluble asterosaponin; antitumor activities; thymus index; spleen index