Study On Chemical Constituents From Smilax Davidiana A.DC.

Smilax (including about 60 species) is a genus of perennial plant widely distributed in eastern, southern and central part of China. Nowadays, the major medicinal species of Smialx are Smilax china and Smialx glabra, but the other species are usually using as substitutes of these two species. Therefore, it is necessary that we investigated the chemical constituents and pharmacological activites of these substitutes. Radix Smilax has some properties as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), such as eliminating wind, damp elimination and detumescence by detoxification. It is used in TCM for treatment of rheumatic arthritic, albinuria, tumor and inflammatory diseases of gynecology, etc. Many ingvestigations about chemical constituents and pharmacological activites of Smilax had been pursued inside and outside China, but there has been no report on the biological activity or constituents of Smilax davidiana A. DC.. We have carried out pharmacological screening of some species, and the results showed that 60% ethanol extract from Smilax davidiana had promoting proliferation activity. To further explain the pharmacological foundation of Smilax davidiana, the present study focuses on chemical constituents of the 60% ethanol extract from Smilax davidiana.In this paper, 5%, 35%, 85% and 95% ethanol elutions of macroporous absorbent resin SP825 of 60% ethanol extract were evaluated for their promoting proliferation activities of HL-60 human promyelocytic leukemia cells. The result of the promoting proliferation activity screening indicated 35% and 85% ethanol elutions showed good activity, while 5% and 95% ethanol elutions showed weaker or no activity. Our systematic phytochemical investigation led to the isolation of 18 compounds by repeated column chromatography on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, octadecylsilanized silica gel (ODS) and preparative HPLC. On the basis of MS, NMR data, measurement of physico-chemical characters and chemical methods, the structure of 17 compounds were elucidated as follows:Resveratrol (1), trans-resveratrol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (2), cis-resveratrol-3- O-β-D-glucopranoside (3), quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (4), 3′-methoxyl- quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (5), catechin (6), epicatechin (7), (2S, 3S)- taxifolin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (8), (2R, 3R)-taxifolin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopy ranoside (9), (2S, 3R)-taxifolin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (10), (2R, 3S)-taxifolin -3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (11), 1′-O-benzyl-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D- glucopyranoside (12), 1′-O-phenethyl-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyran oside (13), 1′-O-phenethyl-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-glucopyranoside (14), (3, 6-di-O-feruloyl)-β-D-fructofuranosyl-(2′-O-acetyl)-α-D-glucopyranoyside (15), 2, 4, 6-trihydroxyacetophenone-2, 4-di-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (16), 3-methyl-butanol-1- O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (17). Among them, 5 compounds (5, 12, 13, 14 and 17) were firstly isolated from the genus Smilax, and 12 compounds (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15 and 16) were firstly isolated from Smilax davidiana A. DC..The activity screening of all these compounds is in progress.