Chemical Constituents Of Three Liverworts And Their Bioactivities

The bryophytes are a class of advanced plants with short and small shape. Generally, they have no vascular tissue and flowers. The bryophytes are taxonomically placed between the algae and the vascular plants. Taxonomically, they are divided into three groups, liverworts (Hepaticae), mosses (Musci), and hornworts (Anthocerotae). Since time immemorial, the bryophytes are used as folk medicine or herbal medicine in various countries. In China, the bryophytes have been used as medicinal plants to cure trauma, scald, infection, pneumonia, angiocardiopathy, dermatosis, and so on. Many species of bryophytes are not damaged by insects and bacteria and they can inhibit the growth of the plants around them, which called the allelopathy. Besides, the bryophytes have shown their superiority in plants conserving and environmental-pollution prediction. In recent years, bryophytes have yielded various diterpenoids and aromatic compounds by experiment measures. Large numbers of them have interesting chemical structures and exhibit significant biologically activity.In this research, three Chinese liverworts Scapania undulate (L.) Dum. collected from Anhui Province, Scapania subrimbosa Steph. collected from Guangxi Province and Lepidozia fauriana Steph. colleted from Yunnan Province were phytochemically investigated. A total of 30 secondary metabolites, mainly including 11 diterpenoids, 12 sesquiterpenoids,1 chroman derivative and 6 bibenzyl, were isolated by column chromatography (CC) on silica gel, reversed-phase C18 and Sephadex LH-20, as well as by HPLC.1 of them was new compound and the rest were known compounds. The new compound was a labdane diterpenoid scapaundulin C (1). Its planar and stereo structure was identified on the basis of NMR and MS. The cytotoxicity to human cancer cell lines and the acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of the isolated labdane terpenoids from Scapania undulate (L.) Dum were also tested. These labdane diterpenoids were reported for the first time to exhibite moderate AchE inhibitory activity. Meanwhile, it was the first time to study the plant Scapania subrimbosa phytochemically.