Kingkan Bunluepuech and Supinya Tewtrakul

pp. 693 - 697

Abstract

For the purpose of discovering anti-HIV-1 agents from Thai plant preparations with a history of use in Thai traditional
medicine as agents assisting longevity, the aqueous and EtOH extracts from 24 Thai plants were screened for their inhibitory
activities against HIV-1 integrase (IN) using the multiplate integration assay (MIA). 11 extracts (23%), 5 ethanol and 6 water,
from 8 plants Albizia procera, Areca catechu, Bauhinia strychnifolia, Betula alnoides, Blumea balsamifera, Caesalpinia
sappan, Cassia garrettiana and Stephania venosa, produced extracts with IC₅₀ values of < 20 µg/ml. 27 extracts (56%) had
no detectable activity with IC₅₀ values >100 µg/ml, while 10 extracts (21%) had IC₅₀ values of between 20-97.2 µg/ml. Both the
EtOH and water extracts of Cassia garrettiana (heartwood) and Bauhinia strychnifolia (vine), were the most potent with
IC₅₀ values of 3.0 and 5.2 µg/ml, and 6.4 µg/ml and 11.2 µg/ml, respectively. The isolation of active principles against HIV-1 IN
from Cassia garrettiana and Bauhinia strychnifolia is now being further investigated. 

Keywords

• anti-HIV-1 integrase activity
• longevity preparation
• Thai plants