What is the benefits and side effects of Ursolic acid?

Ursolic acid is a pentacyclic triterpenoid identified in the epicuticular waxes of apples as early as 1920 and widely found in the peels of fruits, as well as in herbs and spices like rosemary and thyme.

Benefits of Ursolic acid

Ursolic acid is a natural product found in Gladiolus italicus Mill., Freziera Sw. ex Willd., and other organisms. It has a variety of potential pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, serum lipid-lowering, and antineoplastic activities (Sandhu et al., 2023). After exposure to 30 μM of Ursolic acid for 24 h, there were a large number of autophagic vacuoles were presented in TC-1 cells (Leng et al., 2013). 

Meanwhile, TC-1 cells treated with Ursolic acid showed accumulated vacuoles in the cytoplasm and punctate staining of LC3, which was increased by Ursolic acid treatment in a concentration-dependent manner (Leng et al., 2013). Gou et al. synthesized an Ursolic acid derivative, UA232, and they found that UA232 activated protective autophagy in HeLa cells by increasing the LC3II/LC3I ratio, promoting lysosomal biogenesis, and inducing lysosomal membrane permeabilization (Gou et al., 2022).These data suggest that Ursolic acid may be a promising drug candidate for the treatment of cervical cancer.¹

Side effects of Ursolic acid

There are some difficulties for determination of the level and bioavailability of ursolic acid due to lack of chromophores and resistance of oxidation. Similarly, pharmacokinetics of ursolic acid are not fully understood yet. After 4 hours from administration, ursolic acid was found at the highest concentration in the livers of mice.

After many toxicological studies, it has been reported that ursolic acid has very low side effects on healthy cells.However, these effects of ursolic acid have seen in mouse skin after repeated exposure. Because of this knowledge, time and mortality should be taken into account during ursolic acid treatment.

1.Tao Tao, Ping Zhang, Zhi Zeng, Min Wang,Advances in autophagy modulation of natural products in cervical cancer,Journal of Ethnopharmacology,Volume 314,2023,116575.

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