Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2020; 8(10): 1767-1792
Published online May 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i10.1767
Prophylactic and therapeutic roles of oleanolic acid and its derivatives in several diseases
Alaattin Sen
Alaattin Sen, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Life and Natural Sciences, Abdullah Gul University, Kayseri 38080, Turkey
Author contributions: Sen A wrote the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alaattin Sen, PhD, Academic Fellow, Academic Research, Chairman, Full Professor, Instructor, Research Scientist, Senior Lecturer, Senior Researcher, Senior Scientist, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Life and Natural Sciences, Abdullah Gul University, Sumer Campus, Kocasinan, Kayseri 38080, Turkey. sena@agu.edu.tr
Received: January 12, 2020
Peer-review started: January 12, 2020
First decision: February 24, 2020
Revised: March 27, 2020
Accepted: May 1, 2020
Article in press: May 1, 2020
Published online: May 26, 2020
Processing time: 133 Days and 20.4 Hours
Abstract

Oleanolic acid (OA) and its derivatives are widely found in diverse plants and are naturally effective pentacyclic triterpenoid compounds with broad prophylactic and therapeutic roles in various diseases such as ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, metabolic disorders, diabetes, hepatitis and different cancers. This review assembles and presents the latest in vivo reports on the impacts of OA and OA derivatives from various plant sources and the biological mechanisms of OA activities. Thus, this review presents sufficient data proposing that OA and its derivatives are potential alternative and complementary therapies for the treatment and management of several diseases.

Keywords: Oleanolic acid; Prophylactic; Anti-inflammatory; Anti-diabetics; Neuroprotective; Hepatoprotective

Core tip: Oleanolic acid (OA) is plentiful in many fruits and vegetables. Studies have shown that OA and its derivatives exert promising pharmacological actions including anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, anti-osteoporotic and anti-diabetics at low doses. However, it is not a “cure-all” drug or drug candidate and could exert adverse effects at high doses, particularly its derivatives. In addition, information elucidating the drug-drug/drug-herb interactions associated with OA and its derivatives is inadequate. Nevertheless, there is a reasonable amount of literature, as fully explored in this review that OA and its derivatives have crucial prophylactic and therapeutic potential for diseases including ulcerative colitis, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.