Experimental and computational study of biological activities of alkaloids isolated from Peganum harmala seeds

Anticancer compounds from natural products were screened using tumor cell lines. In the present study, we investigated the antiproliferative activity of four compounds isolated from the alkaloidic fraction of Peganum harmala. Compounds (1-4) were assayed in vitro for their effect on thymidine incorporation using Jurkat leukaemia cell line at concentration of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 ^g/ml. Their cytotoxicity was also evaluated at the concentrations indicated above on several murine cell lines. Results showed that vasicinone, harmine and harmalacidine inhibited the proliferation of Jurkat, clone E6-1 cell line with significant cytotoxic effect. No noticeable effect of peganine (compund 3) on thymidine incorporation was observed. On the other hand, DFT calculation has been used to analyze the electronic and geometric characteristics The HOMO, LUMO and gap energies Eg were also deduced for the stable structure for each compound. These results will be correlated with the experimental values.