Review Article A REVIEW ON THE PHYTOPHARMACOLOGICAL EFFECT OF SWIETENIA MACROPHYLLA AHMAD MUSTAFA MASOUD EID 1* , NAGIB ALI ELMARZUGI 1,2 AND HESHAM ALI EL-ENSHASY 1 1 Institute of Bioproduct Development, University Technology Malaysia 81310, UTM, Johor, 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Tripoli University & BTRC, Tripoli, Libya. Email: dr_ahmad98@hotmail.com Received: 11 Jun 2013, Revised and Accepted: 19 July 2013 ABSTRACT Most of the medicinal agents are originated from nature and considered as a rich source for producing drugs including modern drugs. Swietenia machrophylla is one of the most important plant of the family, Meliaceae. It is planted widely in Southern Asia and in the Pacific region. This review provides information on its traditional uses, phytochemical and medicinal values. The plant extracts and its chemical molecules like limonoids have been accounted to possess Antioxidant, Antimicrobial activity, Anti-inflammatory activity, Anti-HIV activity, Antiulcer activity Antifungal activity Antimalarial and Antidiarrhoeal effects, etc. S. Macrophylla activities were proven based on its chemical constituents and traditional uses. Keywords: Swietenia macrophylla, Meliaceae, Anti-inflammatory, Anticancer, Anti-HIV. INTRODUCTION The species Swietenia macrophylla Figure 1, is a member of the family Meliaceae. S. macrophylla occurs mainly in open rain forest, semideciduous and deciduous forests (which lose their leaves in a partial way or total respectively, during the dry season) [1]. Its fruit seem to point upwards to the sky, therefore, it is commonly known as “sky fruit” [2]. S. macrophylla located in more than 40 countries including in Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and other central American countries [3,4,2]. The tree of macrophylla is usually taller than 30 m, with straight trunk and cylindrical with 100 to 200 cm at breast height. The bark is dark reddish brown, entirely rosy, thick and deeply furrowed. The leaves are alternate with leaflets opposite or occasionally changed. The small flowers yellow-cream colored panicles. The fruit is woody, consisting of capsule, ovoid, color light brown, which opens on 5 shares, with 10 to 14 winged seeds [3,5]. Fig. 1: Swietenia macrophylla species. Chemical constituents Swietenia macrophylla contained various chemical compounds. A number of limonoids have been reported from the genus Swietenia with structures assigned on the basis of spectral data [6]. Hence, limonoids and their derivatives have been identified as major constituents of this plant [7]. Limonoids are derived from tetracyclic triterpenes similar to euphol (H-20b) by a series of oxidative changes at their side chain to a b-substituted furan ring by the loss of four carbon atoms, along with some molecular rearrangements. Therefore, an alternative name, tetranortriterpenoids, with a 4,4,8- trimethyl-17-furanylsteroidal skeleton is used to recognize this compound [8]. Based on the isolation done to the fruit of S. Macrophylla, a new phragmalin-type limonoid known as 6-O-acetyl-30- demethylswietephragmin together with 16 known compounds. 6-O- Acetyl-30 demethylswietephragmin, 3,6-O,O-diacetylswietenolide, 3-O-tigloylswietenolide, 3-O-tigloyl- 6-O-acetylswietenolide, swietemahonin, and 6-O-acetylswietemahonin were isolated and identified from its fruit. These compounds exhibited some inhibition of superoxide anion generation by human neutrophils in response to formyl- L-methionyl-L-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (fMLP) [7]. Human neutrophils are known to play a significant role in the host defence against microorganisms and in the pathogenesis of various diseases. Some examples of the diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, ischemia–reperfusion injury, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [7,9]. The understanding of the chemical constituents of the bark of the S. Macrophylla was investigated and it was shows that a new phenylpropanoid-subtituted catechin, namely, swietemacrophyllanin- catechin-8,7-7,2-epoxy-(methyl 4,5-dihydroxyphenylpropanoate) was successfully isolated. The other two known compounds were also isolated which are catechin and epicatechin [10]. From S. macrophylla seeds, many kinds of limonoids or also known as tetranortriterpenoids were found. These included swietenine, swietenolide (a bitter compound) [10,11], 8,30-epoxy-swietenine acetate, swietenolide diacetate [10,11], augustineolide and 3β,6-dihydroxydihydrocarapin [10,12], as well as five derivatives of the former three compounds [13] were isolated and identified. Also there are presence of some fatty acids and terpenoids, which isolated from the seeds [10,11] included palmitic acid (12.50%), stearic acid (16.42%), arachidic acid (0.56%), oleic acid (25.30%), linoleic acid (33.87%) and linolenic acid (11.32%). The abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acid especially linoleic and linolenic acid shows that S. macrophylla seed oil has the ability to provide benefit to human health [14]. The seeds of S. macrophylla were also rich in fat, thus the composition of this seed fat have enhanced the possibility of using this oil [13]. Some chemical constituents were analyzed from the terminal shoots, senescent and mature leaves as the essential oil components in form of fatty acids and terpenoids such as γ-himachalene, germacrene D, germacrene A, cadina-1,4-diene, hexadecanoic acid and ethyl hexadecanoate [10,15]. The percentage of chemical composition of the essential oils of terminal shoots, mature, and senescent leaves of S. macrophylla were different except for the main constituent and five other compounds. The major constituent in all samples with concentration 58.5 to 66.5% was germacrene D, while all the oils contained γ-himachalene, germacrene A, cadina-1,4-diene, hexadecanoic acid, and ethyl hexadecanoate, though in different proportions. The most similarity was found in the oils from mature and senescent leaves, both of which contained 10 similar compounds [15]. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences ISSN- 0975-1491 Vol 5, Suppl 3, 2013 A A c c a a d d e e m mi i c c S S c c i i e e n n c c e e s s