Neurotoxic Sesquiterpenoids from the Yellow Star Thistle Centaurea solstitialis L. (Asteraceae)

✍ Scribed by Ying Wang; Matthias Hamburger; Celine H. K. Cheng; Brenda Costall; Robert J. Naylor; Peter Jenner; Kurt Hostettmann

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 479 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0018-019X
• DOI: 10.1002/hlca.19910740114

✦ Synopsis

Ingestion of yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitidis L.) by horses produces parkinsonism due to nigro-pallidal degeneration. The toxin responsible has not been identified so far. A CH,CI, extract from the aerial parts of C. solstitidis exhibited significant neurotoxicity against primary neuronal cultures of foetal rat brain. Activityguided fractionation yielded the known sesquiterpene lactones solstitiah A (l), 13-0-acetylsolstitialin A (3), cynaropicrin (4), and the hitherto unknown 3-0-acetylsolstitialin A (2). In the bioassay with rat foetal full cell culture, 3 and 4 were toxic in a concentration-dependent manner and may be responsible for the ability of the plant to cause neurodegenerative changes in the brain of horses.