OBJECTIVETo study the chemical constituents of Swertia macrosperma.

METHODThe air-dried whole plants of Swertia macrosperma were extracted with boiling water. The extract was concentrated to a small amount of volume and extracted with petroleum ether, EtOAc and n-BuOH, successively. The compounds were isolated and purified by column chromatography from the EtOAc fraction, and identified based on spectral analyses (MS, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR).

RESULTThirteen compounds were isolated from S. macrosperma, and were characterized as norbellidifolin (1), 1-hydroxy-3,7, 8-trimethoxy-xanthone (2), norswertianolin (3), swertianolin (4), 1,3,7,8-tetrahydroxyxanthone-8-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5), swertiamatin (6), decentapicrin (7), coniferl aldehyde (8), sinapaldehyde (9), balanophonin (10), together with beta-sitosterol, daucosterol, and oleanolic acid .

CONCLUSIONCompounds 2, 4-10 were obtained from Swertia macrosperma for the first time.

Plant Extracts ; analysis ; isolation & purification ; Swertia ; chemistry

In pursuit of effective agents for hepatocellular carcinoma derived from the Artemisia species, this study built upon initial findings that an ethanol (EtOH) extract and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction of the aerial parts of Artemisia dubia Wall. ex Bess. exhibited cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells with inhibitory rates of 57.1% and 84.2% (100 μg·mL^-1), respectively. Guided by bioactivity, fourteen previously unidentified sesquiterpenes, artemdubinoids A-N (1-14), were isolated from the EtOAc fraction. Their structural elucidation was achieved through comprehensive spectroscopic analyses and corroborated by the comparison between the experimental and calculated ECD spectra. Single crystal X-ray diffraction provided definitive structure confirmation for artemdubinoids A, D, F, and H. Artemdubinoids A and B (1-2) represented unique sesquiterpenes featuring a 6/5-fused bicyclic carbon scaffold, and their putative biosynthetic pathways were discussed; artemdubinoid C (3) was a novel guaianolide derivative that might be formed by the [4 + 2] Diels-Alder reaction; artemdubinoids D and E (4-5) were rare 1,10-seco-guaianolides; artemdubinoids F-K (6-11) were chlorine-containing guaianolides. Eleven compounds exhibited cytotoxicity against three human hepatoma cell lines (HepG2, Huh7, and SK-Hep-1) with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) values spanning 7.5-82.5 μmol·L^-1. Artemdubinoid M (13) exhibited the most active cytotoxicity with IC₅₀ values of 14.5, 7.5 and 8.9 μmol·L^-1 against the HepG2, Huh7, and SK-Hep-1 cell lines, respectively, which were equivalent to the positive control, sorafenib.
Humans ; Artemisia/chemistry* ; Sesquiterpenes/chemistry* ; Cell Line ; Hep G2 Cells ; Crystallography, X-Ray ; Molecular Structure

Leading by cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells, bioactivity-guided fractionation of the EtOAc fraction from