Isolation and identification of antitumor promoters from the seeds of Cassia tora.

A methanol extract of Cassia tora seeds was successively partitioned with diethyl ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and water, and the antitumor-promoting activity of the solvent fractions was determined by inhibition of Epstein- Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation induced by teleocidin B-4 in Raji cells. The diethyl ether (68.7%) and chloroform (91.2%) fractions and the hydrolysate (94.3%) of the ethyl acetate fraction had strong inhibitory activities. The chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions were chromatographed on silica gel and further purified by HPLC. Three active compounds, obtusifolin-2-glucoside (75.0%), chryso-obtusin-6-glucoside (56.8%), and norrubrofusarin- 6-glucoside (39.4%), were obtained from the ethyl acetate fraction, and two active compounds, questin (97.9%) and chryso-obtusin (53.8%), were isolated from the chloroform fraction.