Prospects of Boswellic Acids as Potential Pharmaceutics

Zhiyong Du¹^{, *}, Zhenli Liu¹^{, *}, Zhangchi Ning², Yuanyan Liu², Zhiqian Song¹, Chun Wang¹, Aiping Lu³^{, 4}

¹Institution of Basic Theory, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
²School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory for Basic Research of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
³Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
⁴School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, China

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Abstract

Boswellic acids have long been considered the main bioactive components of frankincense, and many studies in vitro and in animals as well as several clinical studies have confirmed their various bioactivities. In particular, a large number of mechanistic studies have confirmed their anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities. However, not every boswellic acid exhibits a satisfactory pharmacological performance, which depends on the chemical structure and functional groups of the acid. To enhance the pharmacological values of boswellic acids, derivatization has been specifically applied with the aim of discovering more active derivatives of BAs. In addition, the preliminary pharmacokinetic studies of these compounds using various standard methods show their poor bioavailability in humans and rodents, which has led to questions of their pharmacological relevance and potentially limits their use in clinical practice and pharmaceutical development. To improve these effects, some approaches have shown some improvements in effectiveness, and the new formula compatibility approach is considered a very reasonable method for improving the bioavailability of boswellic acids.

Key words

Boswellia serrata - Burseraceae - boswellic acids - derivatization - pharmacokinetics - analysis methods - new formula

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Sunday, 24 May 2015