Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

In silico assessment of drug-like properties of alkaloids from Areca catechu L nut

Wei Peng, Yu-Jie Liu, Chong-Bo Zhao, Xue-Si Huang, Na Wu, Mei-Bian Hu, Da-Shuai Xie, Chun-Jie Wu

College of Pharmacy, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610075, PR China;

For correspondence:- Chun-Jie Wu Email: wucjcdtcm@163.com Tel:+8602861801001

Received: 27 December 2014 Accepted: 25 March 2015 Published: 26 April 2015

Citation: Peng W, Liu Y, Zhao C, Huang X, Wu N, Hu M, et al. In silico assessment of drug-like properties of alkaloids from Areca catechu L nut. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(4):635-639 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i4.11

© 2015 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To investigate in silico the drug-like properties of alkaloids (arecoline, arecaidine, guvacine, guvacoline, isoguvacine, arecolidine and homoarecoline) obtained from the fruits of Areca catechu L (areca nut).

Methods: All chemical structures were re-drawn using Chemdraw Ultra 11.0. Furthermore, software including Bio-Loom for Windows - version 1.5, Molinspiration Property Calculator and ACD/I-LAB service were used to predict the drug-like properties of the alkaloids, including relative molecular mass (MW), partition coefficient log P (cLog P), number of hydrogen bond donors (HBD), number of hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA), topological polar surface area (TPSA), number of rotatable bonds (NROTB), pKa, and aqueous solubility at a given pH (LogS). In addition, Lipinski’s rule was used to evaluate drug-like properties.

Results: From our research, MWs of the seven compounds were all < 500. HBD and cLog P values of the seven compounds were all < 5, and HBA values were all < 10. In addition, TPSA value of each compound was < 60 Å², and NROTB value was < 10. Besides, pKa values of the seven alkaloids were > 7.5; furthermore, they possess good solubility at pH 1.0, 5.0, and 7.0.

Conclusion: All the seven alkaloids possess good drug-like properties, and demonstrated good oral absorption and bioavailability. The results also suggest that these compounds can be further developed into new oral drugs for treating certain diseases.

Keywords: Areca catechu L, Areca nut, Drug-like properties, Alkaloids, Arecoline, Arecaidine, Guvacine, Guvacoline, Isoguvacine, Arecolidine, Homoarecoline, In