Catalytic degradation of amygdalin by extracellular enzymes from Aspergillus niger

Amygdalin is a controversial anti-tumor natural product that has been used as an alternative cancer drug for many years. The anti-tumor mechanism and metabolism of amygdalin have been the focus of many studies. However, previous studies by our group demonstrated that amygdalin itself has no anti-tumor activity, but rather the active ingredients were determined to be amygdalin degradation products. To screen novel drugs with anti-tumor activity, the extracellular enzymes from Aspergillus niger were used to degrade amygdalin. Within 4 h of the catalytic reaction at 37°, amygdalin was rapidly degraded into four products. The products were then extracted and purified by column chromatography. By comparing the HPLC chromatograms, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and MS data, the products were identified as mandelonitrile, prunasin, benzaldehyde and phenyl-(3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-methyl-tetrahydro-pyran-2-yloxy)-acetonitrile (PTMT), a novel hydroxyl derivative of prunasin. Furthermore, pharmacology studies of these compounds demonstrated that 10 mg/kg of PTMT significantly suppressed the growth of S-18 tumor cells within 11 days in a concentration-dependent manner.