Studies On The Chemical Constituents In The Chloroform Fraction Of Chimonanthus Salicifolius

The evergreen shrub Chimonanthus salicifolius S. Y. Hu is a species of the genus of Chimonanthus and member of the family Calycanthaceae, distributing in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui Provinces. It was widely used as a tranditional SHE medicine by local SHE people for the treatment of chronic gastritis, gastric distension, stomachache and acid regurgitation, which mainly caused by anabrosis. It was also used against influenza. The main compounds isolated from this plant were volatile oils, flavonoids, coumarins and anthraquinones. During the anti-tumor activity screening experiment, we found that the chloroform fraction from the ethanol extract of the leaves of C. salicifolius showed good inhibitory activity against human colorectal cancer cell line HCT116and human lung cancer cell line HI299. The isolation and purification of compounds from the chloroform fraction were achieved mainly by repetitive column chromatography on silica gel. Thirteen compounds were isolated and elucidated as9-epi-blumenol C (1), blumenol C (2),(+)-dehydrovomifoliol (3),(+)-vomifoliol (4), robinlin (5),(-)-loliolide (6), isofraxidin (7), scopoletin (8),6,7-di-methoxycoumarin (9),6,7,8,-trimethoxy coumarin (10),β-sitostenone (11) and β-sitosterol (12). The planar structure of another compound was elucidated as2,6,2’,6’-tetra-methoxy-4,4’-bis(2,3-epoxy-1-hydroxyl-propyl)-biphenyl (13). Compounds1-6belong to nor-sesquiterpenoids were found in the family Calycanthaceae for the first time. Compound1was a new natural product. Compounds7,11,12and13were isolated from this plant for the first time.Sarcococca ruscifolia Stapf is a species of the genus Sarcococca and member of the family Buxaceae, distributing mainly in Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces. It was widely used as folk medicine to cure stomach pain, bruises, traumatic, dizziness and palpitation. Modern pharmacological and phytochemical researches had demonstrated that S. ruscifolia possess a broad spectrum of biological activities, including antiulcer activity, gastrointestinal peristalsis promotion, anti-cancer and cholinesterase inhibitory activity. Previous research by the member of our research group had isolated six pregnane-type alkaloids from the chloroform fraction of this plant. Further chemical research on the chloroform and ethyl acetate fraction by ODS silica gel column chromatography led to the separation of one pregnane-type alkaloid and three non-alkaloid compounds. Based on chemical and physical properties and spectroscopic data, the compounds were elucidated as sarsaligenine A (14),(+)-isolariciresinol-9-O-β-D-glucoside (15),(+)-isolariciresinol-9-O-p-D-glucoside (16) and tyrosol (17). All compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time and15to17belong to the non-alkaloid compounds were found in the genus Sarcococca for the first time.