Studies On Chemical Constituents Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Selaginella

Herb Selaginella is the whole herb of Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring and used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. It has the special effect of stopping bleeding and is widely applied in stomachache and urine blood disease, etc. Modern pharmacology and clinical research make clear that Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring has the effect of anti-cancer, antiinflammatory, antivirus, relieving pain, lowering blood glucose, strengthening body immune function and so on. This article has studied the chemical compositions and cytotoxic activity of Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring.From the ethanol extract of Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring, 10 constituents were isolated by various chromatographic methods, such as silica gel CC, Sephadex LH-20 CC and PTLC. On the basis of UV, IR, NMR, MS data, measurement of physico-chemical characters and chemical methods, the structures of 9 compounds were identified as 2 biflavones, 5 sterols and 2 phenolics.Among them, three new compounds are 3β, 16α-dihydroxy-5α-cholestan-21-carboxylic acid (1), 3β-acetoxy-16α-hydroxy-5α-cholestan-21-carboxylic acid (2), 3β-(3-hydroxybutyroxy)- 16α-hydroxy-5α-cholestan-21-carboxylic acid (3).The known compounds are amentoflavone (4), isocryptomerin (5), daucosterol (6), sitosterol (7), vanillic acid (8), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (9). Among them, compounds 6 and 8 were isolated from this genus for the first time.Antiproliferative activity of compounds 1, 2, and 3 in human HL-60 leukemia cells were tested by growth inhibition method. All these compounds showed significant inhibitory activity and compound 1 was the most effective antiproliferative agent with an IG₅₀ value of 29.67μM..