3. Biological evaluation
Taking into account the fact that the steroidal alkaloid glycosides possess cytotoxic activity against various tumour cell lines, these tomato steroidal alkaloid glycosides,
esculeosides A (1) and B (2), could be also expected to possess potent anti-cancer activity. Growth inhibition of esculeoside A (1) against MCF7 (human breast cancer cell) and B16F2F (mouse melanoma cell) cells has been evaluated. Cytotoxicities for these compounds were measured using the WST-8 assay method. The GI50 values of 1 were 13.3 and 7.9 mM against MCF7 and B16F2F, respectively. Anti-herpes (anti-HSV-1) activity 18 of esculeogenin A (3) was also evaluated. It showed EC50
42 mg/ml