Chemical And Bioactive Studies On Two Species Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

As one of the traditional chinese medicine reported by "Chinese pharmacopoeia" (2010), Cortex Mori is the root bark of Morus alba L., family Moraceae. It is cold-natured and sweet taste, and plays an important role in clearing away lung-heat, relieving asthma, inducing urination. In addition, previous studies indicated that many compounds in Cortex Mori showed antidiabetics, antihypertension, antibechic, antiasthmatic, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral activities.We studied the chemical constituents of Cortex Mori, and evaluated the activity of some compounds including tumor cell proliferation inhibition and a-glucosidase inhibition in this paper. Thirty-four compounds were isolated from Cortex Mori, the structures were elucidated as cudraflavone Z (1), morusin (2), morusignin L (3), cyclomorusin (4), cyclocommunol (5), licofavone C (6), australone A (7), kuwanon S (8), sanggenone J (9), cyclogeracommunin (10), sanggenol P (11), quercetin (12), taxifolin (13), norartocarpanone (14), pinocembrin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (15), moracin B (16), moracin C (17), moracin M (18), moracin P (19), alfafuran (20), muberrofuran G (21), ursolic acid (22), betulinic acid (23), lupeol (24), (3-sitosterol (25), daucosterol (26),hexadecyl ester (27), caffeic acid (28),2, 4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (29),4-methoxybenzene-1,2-diol (30),2, 4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (31),3,4,5-trimethoxyphenol (32),5,7-dihydroxychromone (33), kuwanon M (34). Compound 1 was a new compound.The inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase was measured using the spectrophotometric method, and the results showed that compounds 2,7,11,12,20, 21 have strong inhibition against α-glucosidase.The cytotoxic activity was screened by using MTT assay, and the results showed that compounds 2,8,21 were toxic to A549 and NCI-H292 cells on different levels. Compound 21 has a strong cytotoxic activity in NCI-H292 cells (IC50 value is 3.75 μmol/L).Alisma orientale (Samuels) Juzep. is one species of genus Alisma, family Alismataceae and mainly distributed in Fujian. The tuber of the plant is commonly used as herb medicine called Rhizoma Alismatis. It is cold-natured and sweet taste, and plays an important role in clearing away lung-heat and inducing urination. In addition, its pharmacological actions lie in diuresis, antilipemic, antihypertension, atherosclerosis, lipotropism. We investigated the chemical constituents of Jianzexie and eleven compounds were obtained, including alisol A (J1), alisol A 24-acetate (J2), alisol F 24-acetate (J3), alisol O (J4), alisol B 23-acetate (J5), orientalol E (J6), alismoxide (J7), thymine (J8), N-(3’-maleimidyl)-5-hydroxymethyl-2-pyrrole formaldehyde (J9), (Z)-8,11,12-trihydroxyoctadec-9-enoic acid (J10),2’, 3’-dihydroxy propylentade canoate (J11). Compound J5 can increase cholesterol pumping ability in THP1 macrophage. Some compounds were tested for their cytotoxic activities, the compounds J1, J5 showed strong cytotoxic activity against the A549 and NCI-H292 cancer cell lines.