• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.91-94
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• 1996

In the course of a search for antitumor agents, we found that the extract of Curcuma longa was effective in inducing apoptosis or programmed cell death (PCD) in human myeloid leukemia cells (HL-60). Active compounds for PCD were isolated from the hexanic extraction of the rhizome of Curcuma longa. With the several chromatographies, and spectral data, they were identified as ar-turmerone and $\beta-atlantone$. The present results demonstrate that the exposure of human myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells to clinically achievable concentrations of arturmerone (TU) or .$\beta-atlantone$(AT) produced internucleosomal DNA fragmentation of approximately 200 base-pair multiples, and the morphological changes characteristic of cells undergoing apoptosis or PCD. This findings suggest that these agents may exert their antitumoral activity, in part, through induction of apoptosis(PCD).