Abstract:

Ursolic acid was reported that it could be used for liver protection. However, its usage is restricted by its poor solubility in water. To improve the hepatoprotective activity of ursolic acid, some novel derivatives of ursolic were designed and synthesized. By modified Koenigs-knorr method, six glycoside conjugates of ursolic acid with modification at C3 and/or C28 were synthesized. It was found that compounds 12b and 12e could obviously increase the survival rate of WB-F344 rat hepatic stem-like epithelial cells evaluated through MTT method at cellular level. In vivo, however, it was not found that compounds 12b, 12d and 12f could obviously prevent the rise of the level of serum transaminases induced by ConA in a mice acute immunity liver damage model except that compound 12d could reduce the level of aspartate aminotransferase(AST) to some extent. By the introduction of galactose moieties, the liver protection potency of ursolic acid was improved.

Key words: Ursolic acid, Glycoside conjugates, Hepatoprotective activity