Sitosterol, structure

The practical development of plant sterol drugs as cholesterol-lowering agents will depend both on structural features of the sterols themselves and on the form of the administered agent. For example, the unsaturated sterol sitosterol is poorly absorbed in the human intestine, whereas sitostanol, the saturated analog, is almost totally unabsorbable. In addition, there is evidence that plant sterols administered in a soluble, micellar form (see page 261 for a description of micelles) are more effective in blocking cholesterol absorption than plant sterols administered in a solid, crystalline form. 

Tenerife and La Palma, revealed the existence of luteolin and an array of simple phenolic derivatives as well as three known phytosterols, B-amyrin, sitosterol, and stigmasterol. The phenols identified comprised a set of phenylpropanoids myristicin [566] (see Fig. 6.16 for structures 566-573), methyleugenol [567], todadiol [568], todatriol [569], crocatone [570], elemicin [571], apiole [572], and the coumarin scopoletin [573]. The occurrence of these compounds is recorded in Table 6.5. The differences between the two profiles were taken by Gonzalez and his co-workers... 

The fourth isolated and identified compound from Palmer amaranth is chondri 11 asterol (5a-stigmasta-7,22-dien-30-ol), a sterol closely related structurally to the major plant sterols, stigmasterol and sitosterol. This compound, isolated as the free sterol, is not soluble in water or 0.1% DMS0, and germination bioassays required pretreatment of the test seed with a 0.1 mM solution of the sterol in DCM. 

For cholesterol absorption, one can take advantage of the fact that plant sterols (phytosterols) are poorly absorbed by mice and humans despite close structural similarity to cholesterol. Beta sitosterol, for example, differs from cholesterol only by the addition of an ethyl group to carbon 24 of the sterol side chain (see Fig. 10.1). This reduces absorption to 6% (34, 35) as compared to 60-80% for cholesterol. Sitostanol, which has a saturated C5-C6 bond in addition to the ethyl group, is only absorbed at 3% (34, 35) and is widely used as a non-absorbed sterol marker (Fig. 10.1). 

The beauty of the microbiological method lies in its ability to oxidize the structurally similar C-17 side chains of other steroids which contaminate sitosterol (e.g., campesterol, dihydrobrassicasterol, and stigmasterol—all of which carry the 3 3-hydroxy-5-ene structure) at both C-17 and 9a sites to compound XXXVIII. 

Fig. 8.5 Chemical structures of EDCs (a) bisphenol-A (b) triclosan (c) nonylphenol (d) 17b-estradiol (e) genistein (f) b-sitosterol...

Phytosterols are structurally very similar to cholesterol and the major phytosterols (campesterol, sitosterol and stigmasterol) have the same kind of membrane viscosity modulating function in plants that cholesterol (C27 3-OH-C6 C6 G61 C5—C8) has in animals. Campesterol (24-methylcholesterol), sitosterol (24-ethylcholesterol) and stigmasterol (A22, 24-ethylcholesterol) are widespread phytosterols. The animal sterols lanosterol and cholesterol are present in particular plants. Phytosterol esters reduce cholesterol absorption and lower LDL-cholesterol. 

The columns used for the GC separation of phytosterols are currently almost exclusively capillary columns with 0.1-0.3 mm internal diameter, and fused-silica capillary columns with chemically bonded stationary phases are commonly used (Abidi, 2001). The best separation of structurally very similar sterols, such as sitosterol and its saturated counterpart sitostanol, is obtained with slightly polar stationary phases like 5% diphenyl-95% dimethylpolysiloxane, and they are currently the most used columns for the separation of phytosterols (Lagarda et al., 2006). For detailed lists of different columns used in sterol analysis, see the papers by Abidi (2001) and Lagarda (2006). 

Phytosterols are partially absorbed in the small intestine. Human absorption efficiency is estimated to be approximately 10% for campesterol and campestanol, 4 to 5% for sitosterol and stigmasterol, and negligible for sitostanol. The absorption of cholesterol ranges from 33 to 60%. Structural features, including the length and configuration of the aliphatic side chain of phytosterols, are thought to contribute to the differences in the absorption efficiency between phytosterols and cholesterol. " Phytosterols apparently displace cholesterol by mass action and... 

Phjdosterols and cholesterol have similar structures phytosterols are therefore competitors of cholesterol absorption. Consumption of phytosterol may lower blood cholesterol and thus protect from cardiovascular diseases (29). Phytosterol, especially, p-sitosterol, inhibits the growth of human colon cancer cell (30), prostate cancer cell (31), and breast cancer cell (32). 

Sitosterol. Sitosterol is a plant sterol, who.se structure is identical with that of cholesterol, except for the sub.stitutcd ethyl group on C-24 nf its side chain. Although the mechanism of its hypolipidemic effect is not clearly understood, it is suspected that the drug inhibits the absorption of dietary cholesterol from the gastrointestinal iraci. Sitosterols are absorbed poorly from the mucosal lining and appear to compete with cholesterol fnr absorption sites in the intestine. 

Bisphenol-A and 17a-thinylestradiol both have estrogenic activity and both have structures resembling the active portion of the estradiol molecule (Figure 5.29). /3-Sitosterol does have a ring structure with an -OH group, but... 

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