Protective effects of Commiphora erythraea resin constituents against cellular oxidative damage.

By bioguided fractionation of the hexane extract of Commiphora erythraea resin we isolated four furanosesquiterpenoids that were tested for their protective activity against oxidative stress. Furanodienone and 1,10(15)-furanogermacra-dien-6-ones showed to be potent inhibitors of lipid peroxidation (IC(50) of -0.087 μM), being more active than the methoxylated analogues. Furthermore, using BV2 microglial cells, we found that furanodienone from C. erythraea is able to counteract LPS-induced cell death and decrease LPS-induced NO generation thus protecting microglial cells from LPS-induced cytotoxicity. Finally, docking studies were undertaken to gain insight into the possible binding mode of the isolated compounds at 5-LOX binding site.