Forty-eight natural and semisynthetic cycloartane-type and related triterpenoids have been evaluated for their inhibitoryeffects on Epstein-Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation induced by the tumor promoter 12-
O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in Raji cells as a primary screening test for anti-tumor promoters. In addition, these triterpenoidshave been tested for their inhibitory effects on activation of (±)-(
E)-methtyl-2-[(
E)-hydroxyimino]-5-nitro-6-methoxy-3-hexemide (NOR 1), a nitric oxide (NO) donor, as a primary screening test for anti-tumor initiators. All of the compoundstested exhibited inhibitory effects on both EBV-EA and NOR 1 activation. Six of these compounds having a C-24hydroxylated side chain, viz., (24
R)-cycloart-25-ene-3
,24-diol (
9), (24
R)-cycloartane-3
,24,25-triol (
11), (24
S)-cycloartane-3
,24,25-triol (
12), (24
)-24-methylcycloartane-3
,24,24
1-triol (
14), (24
)-24
1-methoxy-24-methylcycloartane-3
,24-diol (
15), and (24
)-24,25-dihydroxycycloartan-3-one (
27), showed higher inhibitory effects than the others testedon both EBV-EA (IC
50 values of 6.1-7.4 nM) and NOR 1 activation. Furthermore, compounds
14 and
15 exhibitedinhibitory effects on skin tumor promotion in an in vivo two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis test using 7,12-dimethylbenz[
a]anthracene (DMBA) as an initiator and TPA as a promoter.