Title of Invention

A PROCESS FOR PRODUCING A FRACTION ENRICHED UPTO 100% OF 3-O- ACETYL-11-KETO-BETA-BOSWELLIC ACID FROM AN EXTRACT CONTAINING A MIXTURE OF BOSWELLIC ACIDS

Abstract The invention relates to a process for producing a fraction enriched upto 100% of 3-O-acetyl-11-keto-B-boswellic acid from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids. This extract is oxidized and then acetylated in a known manner.It is possible to reverse the steps by first acetylating and then oxidizing. The resultant mixture is chromatographically separated to collect enriched fraction.
Full Text

A Process for producing a fraction enriched upto 100% of 3-0-
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Field of invention:
This invention relates to a process for producing a fraction enriched upto 100% of 3-O-acetyll 1-keto-P-boswellic acid from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids.
Background of the invention:
Gum resin of Boswellia species known as frankincense has been used as an anti-inflammatory agent in Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine in India. Studies carried out have established anti-inflammatory activity of an alcoholic extract of the gum resin obtained from Boswellia serrata in mice and rats. This extract is also shown to inhibit the formation of leukotrienes in rat peritoneal neutrophils in vitro. The source of anti-inflammatory actions has been attributed to 'boswellic acids (Safayhi, H., el al.9 Planta Medica published from USA and 63, 487 - 493, 1997; J. Pharmacol and Exp. Ther., 26L 1143-46, 1992) published from USA, a group of triterpene acids isolated from the Boswellia resin (Pardhy, R. S., et al, Indian J. Ghent, 16B, 176-178, 1978). These compounds exert anti-inflammatory activity by inhibiting 5-Iipoxygenase (5-LO), a key enzyme for the biosynthesis of leukotrienes and 5(S)-HETE from arachidonic acid. A detailed study on the structure requirements for boswellic acids indicated that of all the six acids, 3-O-acetyl-ll-keto-p-boswellic acid, hereinafter referenced as AKBA shows most pronounced inhibitory activity (Sailer, E.

R., et aL9 British J. Pharmacology, H7, 615-618, 1996). AKBA acts by a unique mechanism, in which it binds to 5-LO in a calcium-dependent and reversible manner and acts as a non-redox-type, non-competitive inhibitor (Sailer, E. R„ et aL, Eur. J. Biochem., 256,364-368,1998).
Gum resin of Boswellia and boswellic acids have been known to possess other therapeutic activities and they are being used to treat human ailments such as bronchial asthama (Gupta, I., et aL, Eur. J. Med Res., 3(11), 511-514, 1998), ulcerative colitis (Gupta, L, Parihar, A., et aL, Eur. J. Med Res. 2(1\ 37-43, 1997) and human leukemia (Yu Shao, Chi-Tang Ho et aL, Planta Medica published from USA, 64, 328 - 331, 1998). Anticarcenogenic property of alcoholic extract of this resin has been disclosed by Mukherji, S„ et aL {Indian J. Pharma, 32, 48 - 49, 1970). Immunomodulatory activity of boswellic acids had been reported by Sharma et aL in Phytotheraphy Research, (10, 107 - 112, 1996X published from USA
Disclosure of the invention:
Organic solvent extract of the gum resin of Boswellia serrata is found to contain a total of six boswellic acids. These acids are shown in Fig.l and are represented by Bl, B2, B3, B4, B5 and B6. Concentration of AKBA, indicated as B2 in the Fig. 1, amounts only in the range of 1 to 10% in the natural boswellic acids fraction.

Present invention is aimed at enriching the concentration of AKB A in the boswellic acids fraction to a desired concentration upto 100%. Another objective of this invention is to remove inactive or less potent boswellic acids by converting them to highly potent AKBA. It is possible to obtain AKBA of high purity upto 100% by the simple process followed by the inventors.
A combination of chemical reactions and physical separations by chromatographic methods achieves these objectives.
The first step in the process involves the oxidation of the boswellic acid mixture to keto-boswellic acids. An oxidant conventionally used for allylic oxidation is preferably used for this step. The second step involves
conversion of 11-keto-p-boswellic acids obtained from oxidation to 3-0-
>
acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid by acetylation. Dry material obtained after acetylation showed 30-40% AKBA by HPLC analysis.
Alternately, the first step in the process involved acetylation of the boswellic acids mixture to acetylated boswellic acids. This step could be executed by any typical acetylating agent like acetic anhydride/pyridine. The second step involves conversion of acetylated boswellic acids into 3-0-acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid by oxidation. Oxidizing agents such as selenium dioxide in a suitable solvent, sodium dichromate AcOH-A^O, t-butylchromate in CC14 - AcOH-Ac20, Cr03 - Pyridine can also utilised to conduct oxidation step. Dry material obtained after oxidation showed 30-40% AKBA by HPLC analysis.

Higher grade AKBA is obtained from the acetylation mixture by chromatographic methodology. Solid supports such as one or more of silica gel, reversed phase silica, alumina, sephadex and toyopearl can be used in the process. Chromatographic techniques are selected from gravity column, flash chromatography, reversed phase chromatography, preparative high pressure liquid chromatography and the combinations thereof. Solvents such as acetone, chloroform, dichloromethane,. ethyl acetate, hexane and water either alone or in combination to run a gravity column or flash column or medium pressure column are used.
This invention relates to a process for producing 10% to 100% of AKBA from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids, obtained from gum resin of Boswellia species, which comprises the steps of oxidising the said boswellic acids containing fraction and subsequent acetylation of said oxidised fraction, followed by chromatographic separation to obtain a fraction enriched in AKBA in the range of 30 to 100%. A fraction enriched in AKBA in the range of 10-30% can be accomplished by. suitably diluting 40% enriched sample with a suitable excipient or natural boswellic acids mixture or by controlling the extent of oxidation by limiting the oxidant during the conversion process.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a process for producing upto 100% 3-O-acetyl-ll-keto-P-boswellic acid from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids obtained from gum resin of Boswellia species comprising the steps of oxdising in a known manner boswellic acids containing fraction from the said extract with subsequent acetylation in a known manner of said oxidized fraction followed by chromatographic separation to obtain a fraction enriched in 3- O-acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid in the range of 10 to 100%.
With reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
Figure 1, shows the six boswellic acids present in an extract obtained from the gum resin.

Figure 2 is a flow chart showing the reaction scheme consisting of oxidation and acetylation resulting in 40.3% AKBA after conversion of the other p-boswellic acids into AKBA.
Best method of carrying out this invention:
The following example illustrates one of the best methods of carrying out the process according to this invention.
Oxidation step: The boswellic acids mixture (85%, 20 g) containing 2.7% 3-O-acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid was dissolved in 1.2 L of dioxane in a 2 L round bottom flask. N-Bfomosuccinimide (24 g) was then added to the mixture. Calcium carbonate (20 g) was then added followed by 0.12 L of water. The reaction mixture was then stirred at room temperature. After 24 hours, the mixture was poured into crushed ice and extracted with 2 X 300 mL of ethyl acetate. The combined organic layer was successively washed with 200 mL of water and 200% mL of brine and dried over 50 g of sodium sulphate. The extract was evaporated and dried under vacuum to obtain 18.4 g of a mixture containing 28% of 1 l-keto-(3-boswellic acid (Bl) and 13.2% of 3-O-acetyl-l l-keto-{3- boswellic acid (B2).
Acetylation step: To a mixture of ketoboswellic acids (20 g), obtained in the oxidation step in 20 mL of dichloroethane, 12 mL of acetyl chloride, 10 mL of pyridine were added. The mixture was stirred at 60°C for 3h and at room temperature for 12h. The reaction mixture was poured into crushed ice and stirring continued for about 10 min. White precipitate formed was filtered

and washed thoroughly with distilled water and dried at 50°C in a vacuum drier for three hours to obtain a mixture of boswellic acids as acetates (20.3 g). HPLC analysis showed that the mixture contained 40.3% of 3-O-acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid (AKBA).
Further enrichment of AKBA: 10 g of the above mixture of boswellic acid, which was assayed to contain 40.3% of AKBA was subjected to flash chromatography on a silica column using 200 mL of hexane, 200 mL of 8% ethyl acetate/hexane and 200 mL of 12% ethyl acetate in hexane as eluants. Each 20 ml fractions were collected. Fractions containing AKBA were combined and evaporated to obtain a residue of 4.0 g, which exhibited 80% of AKBA by HPLC analysis.
Enrichment of AKBA to 100%:
The 80% pure AKBA obtained in the previous step was subjected to repeated chromatography over silica gel using acetone and hexane mixtures as eluants to obtain 98 to 100% AKBA.
Alternately, 80% pure AKBA was subjected to preparative HPLC on CI 8 column (Phenomenex, Luna, 250 mm x212 mm, 10^ A^ax 248 nm9 20 mL/min) using acetonitrile and water mixtures as eluants to obtain 99-100% AKBA(tR13min).
Though the above example describes a specific embodiment of this invention, obvious equivalents and modifications known to persons skilled in the art are not excluded from the scope of the appended claims.





WE CLAIM:
1. A process for producing upto 100% 3-O-acetyl-ll-keto-P-boswellic acid from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids obtained from gum resin of Boswellia species comprising the steps of oxdising in a known manner boswellic acids containing fraction from the said extract with subsequent acetylation in a known manner of said oxidized fraction followed by chromatographic separation to obtain a fraction enriched in 3- O-acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid in the range of 10 to 100%.
2. A process for producing upto 100% 3-0-acetyl-ll-keto-p-boswellic acid from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids obtained from gum resin of Boswellia species comprising the steps of acetylating in a known manner boswellic acids containing fraction from the said extract with subsequent oxidation in a known manner of said acetylated fraction followed by chromatographic separation to obtain a fraction enriched in 3- O-acetyl-11-keto-P-boswellic acid in the range of 10 to 100%.
3. The process as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein an organic solvent extract of the resin from Boswellia serrata containing six boswellic acids is subjected to oxidation, acetylation and chromatographic separation to obtain a fraction enriched in 3- O-acetyl-11-keto-p-boswellic acid.

4. The process as claimed in claims lor 2, wherein said oxidation is carried out by treating the boswellic acids fraction with N-bromosuccinimide and calcium carbonate in dioxane and water.
5. The process as claimed in claim 3, wherein said reaction mixture is diluted with water and extracted with ethyl acetate; said ethyl acetate extract is washed, dried and evaporated to remove the organic solvent.
6. The process as claimed in claims 1 to 5, wherein said acetylation step is carried out by treating said keto-boswellic acids from the oxidation step in dichloroethane with acetyl chloride in the presence of pyridine.
7. The process as claimed in claim 5, wherein said reaction mixture is poured into crushed ice and the white precipitate obtained is separated and dried undet vacuum.
8. The process as claimed in claims 1 to 7, wherein said extract after oxidation and acetylation is subjected to silica gel column chromatography and eluted with organic solvents such as ethyl acetate and hexane either alone or in combination.

9. The process as claimed in claim 7, wherein the fraction eluted from said column is dried and re-chromatographed to obtain 98% to 100% of 3-O-acetyl-l 1-keto-p- boswellic acid.
10. The process claimed in claim 8, wherein said solid supports are selected from reversed phase silica, alumina, sephadex, toyopearl and solvents are selected from acetone, chloroform, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, hexane and water either alone or in combination to run a gravity column or flash column or medium pressure column.
11. The process as claimed in claim 8, wherein said fraction eluted from said column is dried and subjected to HPLC on CI 8 column and eluted with a mixture of water and acetonitrile or methanol to obtain more than 99% pure 3-O-acetyl-l 1-keto-p- boswellic acid.
12. The process claimed in claims 1 to 11, wherein p-boswellic acids in the said natural boswellic acids fraction have different relative proportion.

13. A process for producing upto 100% 3-O-acetyl-ll-keto-P-boswellic acid from an extract containing a mixture of boswellic acids obtained from gum resin of Boswellia species substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.


Documents:

095-chenp-2004-abstract.pdf

095-chenp-2004-claims.pdf

095-chenp-2004-correspondnece-others.pdf

095-chenp-2004-correspondnece-po.pdf

095-chenp-2004-description(complete).pdf

095-chenp-2004-drawings.pdf

095-chenp-2004-form 1.pdf

095-chenp-2004-form 26.pdf

095-chenp-2004-form 3.pdf

095-chenp-2004-form 5.pdf

095-chenp-2004-form19.pdf

095-chenp-2004-pct.pdf

95-CHENP-2004 FORM-3 24-10-2011.pdf

95-CHENP-2004 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS 24-10-2011.pdf

95-chenp-2004 correspondence others.pdf


Patent Number 205269
Indian Patent Application Number 95/CHENP/2004
PG Journal Number 26/2007
Publication Date 29-Jun-2007
Grant Date 23-Mar-2007
Date of Filing 16-Jan-2004
Name of Patentee SHRI. GOKARAJU Ganga Raju
Applicant Address 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
Inventors:
# Inventor's Name Inventor's Address
1 GOKARAJU,Ganda,Raju 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
2 GOKARAJU,Rama,Raju., 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
3 GOTTUMUKKALA,Venkata,Subbaraju LAKSHMISURYA A-16 NALANDA NAGAR,TIRUPATI 517 502
4 GOLAKOTI,Trimurtulu 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
5 PRATHA,Sridhar. 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
6 GOKARAJU,Ganda,Raju 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
7 GOKARAJU,Rama,Raju., 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
8 GOTTUMUKKALA,Venkata,Subbaraju LAKSHMISURYA A-16 NALANDA NAGAR,TIRUPATI 517 502
9 GOLAKOTI,Trimurtulu 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
10 PRATHA,Sridhar. 40-15-14, BRINDAVAN COLONY, VIJAYAWADA 520 010, (A.P).,INDIA.
PCT International Classification Number A 61 K 35/78
PCT International Application Number PCT/IN02/00034
PCT International Filing date 2002-03-05
PCT Conventions:
# PCT Application Number Date of Convention Priority Country
1 NA