Traditional & Alternative Medicine

Artocarpus tonkinensis A Chev. ex Gagnep (Moraceae) is a tree found in northern Vietnam used in VTM by the Hmong ethnicminority to treat arthritis and backache. Intraperitoneal injections of A. tonkinensis extract decreased both arthritis incidence and severity and delayed disease onset in rats with collagen-induced arthritis. In vitro, an extract induced apoptosis in lymph node cell cultures, inhibited mitogen-induced T-cell proliferation, and induced apoptosis of activated LN-derived lymphocytes. In addition, four individual active components isolated from A. tonkinensis have anti-infl ammatory eff ects which correlate with the tree’s inhibition of mitogen-induced T-cell proliferation. Th ese extracts also inhibited production of cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ, in mitogen-stimulated T cells. Th e authors postulated that suppression of T-cell proliferation and cytokine production by A. tonkinensis fl avonoids contribute to reduced arthritis severity aft er experimentally-induced arthritis. A. tonkinensis compounds were also tested for anti-cancer activity, revealing that maesopsin 4-O-β-D-glucoside (TAT-2) has anti-proliferative eff ects on acute myeloid leukemia cells and modulates expression of 19 genes, including hemeoxigenase-1 (HMOX-1), sulphiredoxin 1 homolog (SRXN1), and breast carcinoma amplifi ed sequence 3 (BCAS3). TAT-2 showed also activity against lung cancer in vivo. Other compounds isolated from A. tonkinensis roots, such as cyclocommunol, isocyclomulberrin, cudrafl avone C and morusin, also

exhibited cytotoxicity against hepatocellular carcinoma (SMMC-7721) and gastric carcinoma (BGC-823 and SGC-7901) cell lines. Th us, the success of A. tonkinensis use shows TM can maintain its ethnocultural identity while capitalizing on Western scientifi capproaches (e.g. chemical isolation of active compounds and their biological validation) to ascertain its effi cacy and safety.