title: Screening for acetylcholinesterase inhibitors from Amaryllidaceae using silica gel thin-layer chromatography in combination with bioactivity staining.
abstract: Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was used to screen for acetylcholinesterase inhibitors from Amaryllidaceae extracts. The TLC plate was developed and then stained using Ellman's reagent, 5,5'-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid), to detect acetylcholinesterase activity. The advantages of this TLC assay method were that we could dereplicate the known inhibitor galanthamine, widely occurring in Amaryllidaceae, at an early stage of the isolation procedure. Moreover, there is no disturbance from sample dissolving solvents as in the microplate assay, and it is a very simple method. The detection limits were 10-200 ng for several known acetylcholinesterase inhibitors tested, and it is thus more sensitive than UV or Dragendorff's reagent detection. Also the minimal detectable amount for an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor tested was much less than that needed for the microplate assay. We screened 15 Amaryllidaceae extracts using this TLC method, and chose candidates for acetylcholinesterase inhibitor isolation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacognosy, Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: I K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van de Meent
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ingkaninan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verpoorte
mesh_terms: D000110:Acetylcholinesterase / Q000187:drug effects*; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000032:analysis / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer / Q000379:methods*; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D058428:Silica Gel; D012822:Silicon Dioxide
chemical_list: D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D058428:Silica Gel; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D000110:Acetylcholinesterase