Medicinally important terpenoids of Ganoderma lucidum from Uttarakhand, India

摘要

Since ancient times, Ganoderma lucidum has been acclaimed to be a divine herb in China and Japan that could bestow youth, vigor and longevity (Hirotani et al., 1987). The fruiting bodies of this fungus possess a wide spectrum of medicinal properties and are in use since ages in Traditional Chinese Medicine (Wasser and Weis, 1999). The medicinal properties are attributed to the presence of various polysaccharides and terpenoids in the fungus (Zhou and Gao, 2002). About 80 terpenoids including ganoderic acid derivatives have been isolated from the fruitbodies and the mycelia of G. lucidum (Hirotani et al., 1985; Sato et al., 1986; Nishitoba et al., 1986; Hirotani et al., 1987; Lin et al., 1988; Shiao et al, 1988; Nishitoba et al., 1989; Tokuyama et al., 1990; Hirotani and Furuya, 1990; Min et al., 2000). Some of them have shown cytotoxicity against hepatoma cells in vitro (ganoderic acids U, V, W, X and Y), antihistamine releasing activity in rat mast cells (ganoderic acids C and D), inhibitory activity against angiotensin converting enzyme (ganoderic acid F), hepatoprotective activity (ganoderic acid A) and an inhibitory effect on famesyl protein transferase (ganoderic acid A and methyl ganoderate A) (Min et al., 2000). The present investigation is aimed to identify the presence of the ganoderic acids A, C2 and H from the methanolic extract of dried fruiting bodies of indigenous Ganoderma lucidum, performing High Performance Liquid Chromatography.