Studies On Chemical Constituents Of Macleaya Cordata(Willd.) R. Br.

Macleaya cordata(Willd.) R. Br. is a plant of Papaveraceae family which is widely distributed in south and northwest China. So far, many papers on chemical and pharmacological research of M. cordata have reported that it contained many kinds of components, especially isoquinoline alkaloids and protopine alkaloids as its main components. It also contains steroids, terpenoids and their glycosides, monosaccharides, polysaccharides, cardiac glycosides, coumarin lactones and their glycosides, saponins, flavonoids and their glycosides, volatile oil and other components. Modern pharmacological Studies show that the main active ingredients of Macleaya cordata are alkaloids which have the functions of insecticidal, antimicrobial, anti-tumor and so on. For promoting the medicinal development of Macleaya cordata, enriching the diversity of chemical ingredients from the medicinal resource and finding new pharmacologically active substance of Macleaya cordata, the chemical constituents of the extract from Macleaya cordata and activities were investigated. We also analysised the alkaloid contents of different organs from Macleaya cordata.On the basis of their spectroscopic data and physico-chemical properties as well as reference to literatures, the structures of twenty-five compounds were identified as: maclekarpine E(1), 6-acetonyldihyrochelerythrine(2), cavidilinine(3), 6-acetonyldihyrosanguinnarine(4), O-methylzanthoxyline(5), 6-methoxy-dihydrosanguinarine(6), spallidamine(7), 6-hydroxyldihydrochelerythrine(8), arnotianamida(9), 3-(3,4-dihydroxy) phenylpropanoic acid(10), protopine(11), cryptopine(12). 6-methoxydihydrochelerythrine(13), cordatine(14), dihydrosanguinarine(15), ferulic acid(16), 1-octacosanol(17), syringic acid(18), p-hydroxy-benzoic acid(19), p-coumaric acid(20), quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucoside(21), N-p-coumaroyltyramine(22), 10-eicosenoic acid(23), β-sitosterol(24), β-daucosterol(25). Compond 14 is a new compound. Compounds 1, 3, 7~10, 17~23 are isolated from the plant for the first time, and compound 5 is a new natural product. MTT method was used to test the cytotoxic activity of these compounds on NCI-H460, MCF-7 and SF-268 human cancer cell lines. Compounds 6、8、13~15 showed significant inhibitory activity against these three cell lines. The content analysis showed there were significant differences in the content of sanguinarine and chelerythrine of different organs from Macleaya cordata.