Bryonolic acid (20-epi-Bryonolic acid), a triterpenoid extracted from Sandoricum indicum, possesses immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anticancer activities and protects PC12 cells from NMDA-induced apoptosis by inhibiting Ca2+ in-flux and modulating gene expression in the Ca2+-CaMKII-CREB signalling pathway.

In the presence of three elicitors (methyl jasmonate, yeast extract, and chitosan), cell suspensions treated with 1 mg/mL of chitosan for eight days led to higher bryonolic acid contents (23.56 ± 1.68 mg/g dry weight),cell culture and root extracts with high bryonolic acid contents resulted in significantly higher percent cell viabilities than those observed under control (1% v/v DMSO) treatment in Saos-2 and MCF-7 cells[1].
Bryonolic acid inhibits ACAT in intact cancer cells with an IC50 of 12.6 ± 2.4 µM.Bryonolic acid inhibited both clonogenicity and invasiveness of several cancer cell lines[2].

Treatment with 500 mg/kg Bryonolic acid or vehicle by intraperitoneal injection in Nrf2 wild-type or Nrf2 knockout mice revealed that Bryonolic acid effectively induced HO-1 in a manner dependent on the Nrf2-Keap1 pathway[3].