Biological activity of novel macrocyclic alkaloids (budmunchiamines) from Albizia amara detected on the basis of interaction with DNA.

Extracts derived from Albizia amara were found to demonstrate activity in a recently developed hplc system designed to detect compounds capable of interacting with DNA. Further investigation led to the procurement of four sets of alkaloid isolates X1-X4 that were found to be macrocyclic pithecolobine alkaloids. All four isolates interacted with calf thymus DNA and were generally cytotoxic with a battery of cultured mammalian cells. As determined with Salmonella typhimurium strain TM677, isolates X1 and X3 were bactericidal, but not mutagenic. Isolate X1 was found to inhibit the catalytic activity of DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase, and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. With DNA polymerase, the reaction was shown to be inhibited in a manner that was competitive with respect to DNA. In addition, isolate X1 inhibited each of the following: platelet aggregation, human lymphocyte transformation, phorbol-ester-induced chemiluminescence with human granulocytes, and cyclooxygenase activity. Detection of these alkaloids on the basis of their interaction with DNA exemplifies the validity of this approach.