Production Technologies of Pharmacologically Active Sesquiterpene Lactones

Abstract

Sesquiterpene lactones form a large group belonging to natural terpenoids series, generally found in plants of Asteraceae family and exhibiting anti-tumor, antiviral, immunostimulant, antifungal, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, growth stimulating, antifeedant effects. Therefore, search for new compounds with a broad spectrum of pharmacological activity in this series provides the opportunities for effective and conceptually new drug design. The basis of the technology for the isolation of sesquiterpene lactones is the extraction of raw materials with various organic solvents, followed by chromatographic purification. Sesquiterpene lactones have no common properties that can be used in their isolation. Some of them are well soluble in non – polar solvents, others-only in polar, in this regard, the methods of isolation of sesquiterpene lactones are diverse. The greatest number of sesquiterpene lactones is isolated from leaves and flowers, slightly less – from roots and bark. Therefore, the development of methods for their isolation is associated with the selection of solvents and optimization of the extraction mode. Unfortunately, very few medicines based on sesquiterpene lactones are produced by the pharmaceutical companies today. Complexity of introduction of pharmacologically active sesquiterpene lactones technology into pharmaceutical production is in imperfection of their isolation methods from plant raw material, their purification and separation from obtained extracts. Production technologies of the patented medicines "Santonin", "Alanton" on the basis of sesquiterpene lactones are multiphase, labor-intensive, implying the use of many toxic organic solvents which is against the international GMP standards.