|
Botany
Spider lily is a bulbous, herbaceious plant. Leaves are fleshy, dark green and
glossy, narrowly lanceolate, 0.5 to 1 meter long, 6 to 7 cm wide. Scape
is erect, solid, somewhat compressed, about 0.5 m tall, bearing at its
apex few to many sessile, umbellate flowers. The flowers are fragrant
with the perianth-tube greenish below and whitish above, about 12 cm
long, with white, linear and spreading lobes, 10 cm long and 5 to 7
mm wide. The membranous cup connecting the filaments is white, funnel-shaped,
4 to 5 cm diameter. The anthers are green and erect.
 Distribution
Cultivated as hedge in Manila and
other large towns.
Grows wild in waste places, through bulb reproduction.
Found in a broad range of growing conditions, from wet and boggy to
dry areas.
Constituents
and properties
Toxic alkaloid, lycorine is responsible
for its emetic property. The roots contain 0.015 per cent of the alkaloid.
 Parts
utilized
Bulb
Uses
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, the bulb is the
only part of the plant used for wound healing.
- In Lao, roots boiled in water, used for testicles too low because of excessive running.
Studies
• Methylflavan / Antioxidant: Study
isolated 7,4'-dihydroxy-8-methylflavan from the extract of P littorale
stem and assessed for its radical scavenging properties.
• Cytotoxicity: A
1993 study isolated pancratistatin (PST) from H littoralis which displayed
potent cytoxicity against a human tumor cell line. A recent study showed
selectivity of PST to cancer cells and sparing of normal cells.
This study investigated the anti-cancer efficacy and specificity of
two PST-related natural compounds, AMD4 and AMD5. Results showed AMD5
had efficacy and selectivity similar to PST and AMD4 lacked apoptotic
activity. The phenanthridone skeleton in natural Amaryllidaceae alkaloids
may be a common element for selectivity against cancer cells.
• Anti-tumor: The
biologic activities of isocarbostyril alkaloids showed excellent in
vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity against many tumor cell lines and high
selectivity for cancer cells versus normal cells.
• Littoraline / Cytotoxicity: Study
isolated a new alkaloid, littoraline, with 13 other known lycorine alkaloids
and one lignan. Littoraline showed inhibitory activity of HIV reverse
transcriptase and lycorine and haemanthamine showed potent in vitro
cytotoxicity.
• Pancratistatin / Anticancer: (1) The species serves as an effective source of pancratistatin, a powerful anticancer agent. Pancratistatin is primarily produced in the bulbs, to a lesser extent, in the roots. The report describes a method for large-scale production. (2) Narciclasine was employed as precursor for synthetic conversion to natural (+) pancratistatin.
• Alkaloids: Phytochemical screening of bulbs and flowers yielded four alkaloids: lycorine, hippeastrine, 11-hydroxyvittatine, and (+)-8-O-demethylmaritidine, plus two flavonoids, quercetin 3-O-glucoside and rutin. Study investigated the antimicrobial activity of a petroleum ether extract of the flowers.
• Narcistatin / Antineoplastic: Human cancer cell line inhibitory isocarbostyril precursors were isolated from the buls of Hymenocallis littoralis from the horticultural production or reduction of narciclasine 1a-4 from the same source.
Availability
Cultivated.
|
