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<i>In silico</i> Assessment of Drug-like Properties of Alkaloids from <i>Areca catechu</i> L Nut


W Peng
YJ Liu
CB Zhao
XS Huang
N Wu
MB Hu
DS Xie
CJ Wu

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate in silico the drug-like properties of alkaloids (arecoline, arecaidine, guvacine, guvacoline, isoguvacine, arecolidine and homoarecoline) obtained from the fruits of Areca catechu L (areca nut).
Methods: All chemical structures were re-drawn using Chemdraw Ultra 11.0. Furthermore, software including Bio-Loom for Windows - version 1.5, Molinspiration Property Calculator and ACD/I-LAB service were used to predict the drug-like properties of the alkaloids, including relative molecular mass (MW), partition coefficient log P (cLog P), number of hydrogen bond donors (HBD), number of hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA), topological polar surface area (TPSA), number of rotatable bonds (NROTB), pKa, and aqueous solubility at a given pH (LogS). In addition, Lipinski’s rule was used to evaluate druglike properties.
Results: From our research, MWs of the seven compounds were all < 500. HBD and cLog P values of the seven compounds were all < 5, and HBA values were all < 10. In addition, TPSA value of each compound was < 60 Å2, and NROTB value was < 10. Besides, pKa values of the seven alkaloids were > 7.5; furthermore, they possess good solubility at pH 1.0, 5.0, and 7.0.
Conclusion: All the seven alkaloids possess good drug-like properties, and demonstrated good oral absorption and bioavailability. The results also suggest that these compounds can be further developed into new oral drugs for treating certain diseases.

Keywords: Areca catechu L, Areca nut, Drug-like properties, Alkaloids, Arecoline, Arecaidine, Guvacine, Guvacoline, Isoguvacine, Arecolidine, Homoarecoline, In silico


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1596-9827
print ISSN: 1596-5996