Studies On The Chemical Constituents And Immunomodulatory Activities Of The Leaves Of Cinnamomum Cassia

The dried leaves of Cinnamomum cassia was widely used in folk to treat headache, cough, chest distress, abdominal pain, diarrhea and pernio. This dissertation focuses on the studies on the chemical constituents and immumomodulatory activity of n-butyl alcohol extraction from the ethanol extract of the leaves of Cinnamomum cassia1.39 compounds were isolated from the leaves of Cinnamomum cassia, including 21 new ones. Their structures were established by extensive spectroscopic methods and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Cinnamomols A(1) and B(2) possess an unprecedented, cage-like, 5/5/5/5/5/6-fused hexacyclic diterpene skeleton comprising a 9,10-dioxa-tricyclo[5.2.1.04,8]decane and a tricyclo[5.2.1.02,6]decane moieties. And a plausible biosynthetic pathway for 1 and 2 was proposed.Since C. cassia has been used to improve immunity, some new isolates, 1–6, 9, 11–13 and 16 were evaluated for their in vitro immunomodulatory activity in a ConA/LPS-induced murine splenocyte proliferation assay by monitoring radioactivity.14 We found that 1–5, 9, 11 and 16 can significantly modulate the proliferation of ConA-induced murine T cells. Especially, compounds 1 and 2 appeared stronger activity than positive medicine Tα1 in the same concentration, and the highest proliferation rate of 2 up to 64%, which is twice as high as Tα1 in the same concentration. For the first time, the rynodane-related diterpenes were proved to be stimulative to the proliferation of T lymphycyte in vitro, providing the possibility to find the new type immunomodulator.