Six compounds were isolated from fresh rhizomes of fingerroot (
Boesenbergia pandurata Schult.)as strong antimutagens toward 3-amino-1,4-dimethyl-
5H-pyrido[
4,3-
b]indole (Trp-P-1) in
Salmonellatyphimurium TA98. These compounds were 2',4',6'-trihydroxychalcone (pinocembrin chalcone;
1),2',4'-dihydroxy-6'-methoxychalcone (cardamonin;
2), 5,7-dihydroxyflavanone (pinocembrin;
3), 5-hydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone (pinostrobin;
4), (2,4,6-trihydroxyphenyl)-[3'-methyl-2'-(3' '-methylbut-2' '-enyl)-6'-phenylcyclohex-3'-enyl]methanone (
5), and (2,6-dihydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-[3'-methyl-2'-(3' '-methylbut-2' '-enyl)-6'-phenylcyclohex-3'-enyl]methanone (panduratin A;
6). Compound
5 wasa novel compound (tentatively termed 4-hydroxypanduratin A), and
1 was not previously reportedin this plant, whereas
2-
4 and
6 were known compounds. The antimutagenic IC
50 values ofcompounds
1-6 were 5.2 ± 0.4, 5.9 ± 0.7, 6.9 ± 0.8, 5.3 ± 1.0, 12.7 ± 0.7, and 12.1 ± 0.8
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M in thepreincubation mixture, respectively. They also similarly inhibited the mutagenicity of 3-amino-1-methyl-5
H-pyrido[4,3
-b]indole (Trp-P-2) and 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-
b]pyridine (PhIP).All of them strongly inhibited the N-hydroxylation of Trp-P-2. Thus, the antimutagenic effect ofcompounds
1-6 was mainly due to the inhibition of the first step of enzymatic activation ofheterocyclic amines.Keywords: Antimutagen; fingerroot (Boesenbergia pandurata Schult.); Ames test; Trp-P-1;4-hydroxypanduratin A; Thailand; JIRCAS