Hepatoprotective and cytotoxic activities of abietic acid from Isodon wightii (bentham) H. hara

Isodon (Lamiaceae) is a known source of bioactive terpenoids. Diterpenoids isolated from Isodon wightii (Bentham) H. Hara showed antibacterial, antiacetylcholinesterase, antioxidant, anticancer, and anticarcinogenic activities, etc., Hepatoprotective activity of ABA against lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced liver injury in BALB/c mice was studied. Cytotoxic activity of ABA was tested against cervical cancer cells (HeLa) using MTT assay followed by propidium iodide (PI) staining to identify apoptosis. Histopathological analysis revealed that 1.5 μg/mL LPS induced liver damage was attenuated by ABA in a dose dependent manner. ABA showed cytotoxicity with IC50value of 176.28 ± 0.02 μg/mL and PI staining of treated cells showed apoptosis. This study proves that ABA would be a promising natural compound for herbal drug preparation. SUMMARY In the present study, abietic acid isolated from I.wightii had potent hepatoprotective effect on LPS induced liver damage in BALB/c mice. Abietic acid also showed cytotoxic activity on HeLa cells followed by apoptosis induction confirmed by PI staining. Abbreviation Used: ABA: Abietic acid; LPS: Lipopolysacharride; PBS: Phosphate buffer saline; PI: Propidium iodide; NMR: Nuclear magnetic resonance; COSY: Correlation spectroscopy; HSQC: Heteronuclear single quantum correlation; HMBC: Heteronuclear multi - bond correlation; MTT: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide