BETULIN AND BETULINIC ACID
BETULIN (Betulinol, Birch camphor, Lupendiol) - natural combination - penthacyclic tritherpene alcohol of lupan line.
Chemical structure of Betuline and Betulinic acid produced by SNS Pharma.
BETULIN [473-98-3] C30H50O2, molecular mass 442,7 cream-colored crystall powder with betulin contents 85% or higher, white colored crystall powder with betulin contents 98-99%.
"........It is a scientific fact that chaga mushroom placed into a birch bark box acquires more expressed therapeutic properties. Basic acting substances of the white part of birch bark triterpenic bonds - betulin, lupeol, betulinic acid, etc. - they possess anticancerous action, causing apoptoz (programmed death) of cancerous cells and transfer to chaga, thus strengthening its properties..", says Galina Mikhaylovna Fedoseeva (see photo on the left), the Chairman of the Department of Biopharmacognosy and Botany of Irkutsk State Medical University, professor, Doctor of the pharmaceutical sciences.
The very compound that makes the birch “shine bright white” has been tentatively linked to treatment for such devastating human ailments as some melanomas or cancer, several forms of herpes and even for AIDS.
Betulin, a powdery substance in the outer bark of the birch tree, has been shown to help wounds heal faster and cut inflammation. Many cosmetic companies, touting it as a skin toner and restorer, add birch bark extract to various products. And a birch bark compound, betulinic acid, is being tested as a treatment for melanoma and other serious diseases.
Betulin can be easily converted to betulinic acid, which possesses a wide spectrum of biological and pharmacological activities. Betulinic acid has antimalarial and anti-inflammatory activities. Betulinic acid and its derivatives have especially shown anti-HIV activity and cytotoxicity against a variety of tumor cell lines comparable to some clinically used drugs. A new mechanism of action has been confirmed for some of the most promising anti-HIV derivatives, which makes them potentially useful additives to the current anti-HIV therapy. Betulinic acid is specifically cytotoxic to several tumor cell lines by inducing apoptosis in cells. Moreover, it is non-toxic up to 500 mg/kg body weight in mice. The literature concerning derivatization of betulin for structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies and its pharmacological properties is reviewed.
Fields of application:
1. Raw material for pharmaceutical production;
2. As a main active ingredient in parfumery-cosmetic products;
3. Technical aspects of application;
The producer is the company SNS-Pharma Inc (www.sns-pharma.ru), For industrial use it offers the following products made with its patented technology:
1. DBBE (dry birch bark extract) with 82-85% betulin content;
2. PBS (pharmaceutical betulin substance), purity 98%;
3. BSS (betuline standard sample), with 99.2% purity for chromatograph calibration;
4. Betulinic acid.
During the last twenty years the department of pharmacognosy and botany of Irkutsk State Medical University has been involved in the study of the effects of a birch /Betula pendula Roth./ on the vital activity of man. It is known since ancient times that white part of birch bark possesses the antiseptic properties: birch bark is applied to wounds for faster healing, tar and activated carbon is made also from it. Ancient Russian medical manual, recommending birch for treating the purulent wounds, the prolongedly unhealing ulcers, advises: "so that the rotten meat from the ulcer was eaten away, ground birch crust should be poured into the rotten wound ". A rim made from the white part of birch bark "removes" headache. It is possible to say that in nature there is no other tree so many parts of which (crust, leaves, buds, juice, wood and phytopathogenic parasitic fungus - chaga), so frequently were used in folk medicine.
Scientists Tulchinskaya and Yurgelaytis report, that in the air of birch forests there are 400 microbes into 1 cubic meter, which turns out to be lower than the existing standards for the operating rooms in hospitals. 
Especially successfully (in 3-10 min) the bactericides of white part of birch bark manage to eliminate pathogens of typhoid fever, tuberculosis and diphtheria. Unique therapeutic properties are given to white part of birch bark thanks to BETULIN - substance from the class of triterpenoids (triterpenovy diatomic alcohol of lupan).White part of birch bark remains white even when the tree itself is completely rotted. The stability to harmful microflora white part of birch bark is obliged precisely to betulin.
The studies, carried out during recent years, showed that THE BETULIN has valuable pharmacological properties: antioxidant, antitumorigenic, antigipoksantnym, gepatoprotektornym, antiviral, immunomodulator, antibacterial, that regenerate, antipyretic, bile-expelling. Betulinic acid has been explored as a potential treatment for skin cancer for more than a decade. Betulin, its derivatives and other birch bark compounds also are being tested for effectiveness in treating HIV,the virus that causes AIDS, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause severe cold-like symptoms and pneumonia.
In the white part of birch bark there are other medical substances: betulinic acid, b - sitosterol, flavonoids, lupeleol and other. Examinations conducted, in Russian institute of pharmacology, showed that the complex of substances forming part of white part of birch bark possesses high antimutagenic activity, capable of lowering the number of mutations in the chromosomes and the genes, the frequency of the appearance of hereditary changes in the organism. The antimutagenic action of the substances of white part of birch bark is connected with their capability for the suppression of free-radical oxidation, and in the ability of white part of birch bark to induce the production of interferons, which, as it’s known, positively influence the processes of reparation of DNA.The substances, contained in white part of birch bark contribute to the decrease of hypoxia and to increase of the stability of organism to the oxygen deficiency, being antihypoxant correcting the metabolism of cells.
Treatment of liver diseases is directed, mainly, to protecting cells of the liver from the damages caused by different chemical substances. Together with the radiation therapy and the surgery, in the therapy of the tumor pathology, the important component of treatment and rehabilitation of patients appears to be application of medicinal plants. The unique biological activity of the substances of those isolated by white part of birch bark contributes to the decrease of toxic action of chemo- and radiation therapy on the organism. The antioxidant activity of betuline is connected with its direct effect on the ferments of the antioxidant protection, whose basic functional role consists of the decomposition of organic peroxides, first of all - peroxides of lipids, which play paramount role in the disturbance of the normal structure of biological membranes. Substances forming betulin possess the high gepatoprotektornoy and detoxifying activity, inducing the ferments of the rendering safe system of the liver, it normalizes bile secretion, reduces cholesterol level in the blood. Statistics testifies that in the regions, where white part of birch bark is traditionally used in household articles such as caskets, boxes and ducts for storing food products, people live longer and the index of oncologic diseases was recorded as very low.