Effects of iridoids on lipoxygenase and hyaluronidase activities and their activation by beta-glucosidase in the presence of amino acids.

Enzyme inhibitory activities of 14 iridoids previously obtained from two Malaysian medicinal plants, Saprosma scortechinii and Rothmannia macrophylla, were evaluated in vitro using soybean lipoxygenase and bovine testis hyaluronidase. Most of the iridoids, including asperulosidic acid, paederosidic acid, and an epimeric mixture of gardenogenins A and B, did not show any effect on the enzyme activities, except for the bis-iridoids, which inhibited the lipoxygenase activity with their IC(50) values of approximately 1.3 times that of a known inhibitor, fisetin. Structural modification of asperulosidic acid and paederosidic acid through enzymatic hydrolysis by beta-glucosidase resulted in their inhibition towards the enzyme activities, and these activities were enhanced by the presence of some amino acids (lysine, leucine or glutamic acid) or ammonium acetate. Mixtures of gardenogenins A and B; isomers of non-glucosidic iridoids, incubated with amino acid or ammonium acetate did not show any inhibitory effect on the enzyme activities during the 6 h incubation period, except for lysine where spontaneous reaction between the iridoids and amino acid resulted in the inhibition of lipoxygenase activity. The results from these biomimetic reactions suggested that the iridoid aglycons and the intermediates formed by these reactive species could inhibit the enzyme activities, and thus substantiate previous reports that the formation of iridoidal aglycons is a prerequisite for the iridoid glycosides to demonstrate some of the biological activities. In addition, the results also indicated that it is worthwhile to further explore these intermediates as potential anti-inflammatory agents.